Bits Bucket for January 16, 2011
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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There has been endless debate about gold and the monetary system around here. For what it’s worth, this short cartoon captures some of the issues brilliantly.
http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur (January 16)
Awesome! Never forget that lots of paper monies are supported by “sticks,” too.
Even in those early days,…Obesity was obvious.
Looks like San Diego is going to need “more paper money” now that the city can not continue to pay the generous pension payments. Reality has finally come home. A bankrupt city has little choices now!
Are you the mayor, or do you just coincidentally have the same first name?
Your San Diego topical posts remind me of back when a horrible troll who called himself Antonio Villagraigosa used to post here before the bubble popped, and tried to tell us we were all wrong about the bubble. We haven’t heard from him much since the bubble spectacularly imploded.
Having lived in San Diego for thirty years have witnessed the kicked the can down the financial road for years but now hard reality comes when city officials scramble to find any pockets of income in order to pay the bloated rising pension costs if any new money can be found. Tax payers pockets are there. Of course maybe your answer is “cut off the citys employees cell phones” to pay for pension costs. You say you are a professor. Maybe you are a little concern about your future. Sorry if this hits to close to home. let’s see what happens in 2012?
“Of course maybe your answer is “cut off the citys employees cell phones” to pay for pension costs.”
It seems to me as though the problems, which started before I lived here, and before Jerry Sanders became mayor, have gone unmitigated, and the perpetrators have successfully absconded with the loot from their illicit pension heist which was carried out in broad daylight. Apparently the courts are going with an interpretation of pension law that says once stolen, retirement benefits are yours to keep.
I definitely don’t believe it is fair to force future generations of San Diegans or San Diego city workers for sins of the fathers, but that appears to be the path down which we are headed. Anyone who wishes to tie their fate to the privileges of living in a city with a broke back budget through buying a home in San Diego is certainly free to do so.
Wednesday, Jun 15, 2005
SAN DIEGO’S PENSION SCANDAL FOR DUMMIES
Understanding San Diego’s $1,700,000,000 pain in the @$$
By Daniel Strumpf
Chaos rules in San Diego. The city is in deep financial and political doo-doo, and city officials are either resigning, being forced to resign or being charged with crimes one after the other. But ask your average urban dweller how our city-once touted as a paragon of financial virtue-fell from grace into the municipal manure pile, and you’ll either get a blank stare or a mumbled explanation that has something to do with a pension system. At the same time, talking to an “expert” can be a lot like drinking from a fire hose.
That’s why CityBeat decided to boil down the inherently complex tale of how our city ended up $1,700,000,000 in the hole and what led to multiple civil and criminal investigations.
We’ve removed all of the advanced mathematical mumbo-jumbo, enough acronyms to cause a cerebral hemorrhage and whittled three decades worth of history down to the bare essentials. What’s left is a hopefully digestible tale of how San Diego ended up in the dire situation in which it finds itself these days. We offer it to our readers with the hope that knowing how we got into this mess will help us find our way out.
…
San Diego Pension Scandal Called “Worse Than Bell”
Last Update: 10/05/2010 7:18 am
SAN DIEGO - A report released Monday documents large retirement payouts for former city of San Diego employees, which a pension reform advocate said amounts to a bigger scandal than in the city of Bell, where eight officials now face corruption charges for excessive salaries and perks.
According to the report, which was prepared by Marcia Fritz, the president of the California Foundation for Pension Reform, the top 10 pension recipients in the city of San Diego will split $61.5 million over the next 25 years.
“These workers, these retirees, are drawing from four different retirement allowances at the same time,” Fritz said.
“They are making more in retirement than the current salary of the city workers that are replacing them,” she said. “We are making millionaires out of these workers.”
Fritz and Councilman Carl DeMaio compared the city’s pension payments to the city of Bell, where it was recently revealed that some executive-level and elected city officials had exorbitant salaries and benefits. As a result, the mayor, several City Council members, the city manager and other officials in that Los Angeles County city are now facing corruption charges.
“This is actually worse than Bell, believe it or not,” Fritz said.
…
City Pension Reform Plan Gets Cold Reaction From Unions
Last Update: 1/14 8:22 pm
SAN DIEGO - A pension showdown is brewing between the city and unions. The city faces a 2.1 billion dollar pension deficit. The city wants to negotiate a deal with the unions.
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said, “Tragically previous administrations and councils acted wrecklessly granting heavy pension increases while at the same time underfunding the pension system.”
…
Not only can rocks and paper serve as currency, but under the right economic conditions, so can food. Anyone who claims that The Precious™ is the only real money is not paying close attention.
Honey buns and jails: Why do prison inmates love honey buns so much?
By Drew Harwell, The Associated Press
10:51 a.m. EST, January 8, 2011
In prison, honey buns substitute for currency and sell more than tobacco, envelopes and Coke
In a November 9, 2010 photo, an inmate picks up his canteen purchase of four honey buns and three packs of Top tobacco at Zephyrhills Correctional Institution. The canteen at Zephyrhills sells about 60 honey buns a day. (Brendan Fitterer, St. Petersburg Times via The Associated Press / November 9, 2010)
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida — The honey buns enter lockup the same way anyone else does: bound, escorted through halls and sally ports, and secluded in small boxes solely opened from the outside. From there the honey buns languish for days, maybe longer, until they’re gone.
They are a lowly, sturdy food designed for desperate cravings and vending machine convenience. They can endure weeks of neglect and even a mild mashing in a coat pocket or backpack. They are, it should come as no surprise, especially beloved by a similarly hardy but disrespected population: Florida’s prison inmates.
Inmates in the Florida prison system buy 270,000 honey buns a month. Across the state, they sell more than tobacco, envelopes and cans of Coke.
Not only that, honey buns have taken on lives of their own among the criminal class: as currency for trades, as bribes for favors, as relievers for stress and substitutes for addiction. They’ve become birthday cakes, hooch wines, last meals even ingredients in a massive tax fraud.
…
Sugar buzz. No joke.
Sugar is also extremely addicting. It really should be on the controlled substance schedule.
So far as I am aware, it’s the only (un)controlled substance in which temple-worthy LDS can imbibe, which perhaps explains why jello is officially Utah’s state snack food.
OMG It’s a raid. — The Twinkie Police, they’ve found us !!
“Honesty and politics are contradictory terms. The State’s standard method of meeting its debt obligations is inflation. It pays off with engraved paper.”
~Frank Chodorov
Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey the laws too well. What satire on government can equal the severity of censure conveyed in the word Politic, which now for ages has signified cunning, intimating that the State is a trick?
1800’s American throw-back thinker: Emerson
“Emerson is an Uncle Tom.”
- Henry David Thoreau
I’m not sure if that’s an accurate quote. Emerson was Thoreau’s primary benefactor and owned the land on which Thoreau built his cabin for Walden
It’s my humerous paraphrase…
One day when Thoreau was in jail for some civil disobediance, Emerson came by and asked him why he was in jail. Thoreau replied something like “the real question Waldo is why you are outside?”
But what about Lake and Palmer?
When did Thoreau call Emerson an ‘Uncle Tom’?
No government in history has EVER paid off its internal debts. They either repudiate them, or, more often, inflate them away, as Bernanke is doing with his endless “quantitative easing.” His Wall Street masters will reap billions, while Main Street is ravaged by inflation and sees their savings and retirements become worthless.
The Roman Dinarius was originally silver. It morphed into copper and bronze coins as the Empire was unable to pay it’s growing army of soldiers and state-supported workers to keep the empire burgeoning. Trust in the money system collapsed just ahead of the decline of the entire edifice as people no longer believed they would be paid for the goods the state demanded of them in exchange for payments. You can track the decline in the money at recovered ancient sites, where archeologists have unearthed remnants of their daily lives.
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance the government’s reckless fiscal policies.”
~Senator Barack Obama, 2006.
> So where is Barry on this issue today?
In the Banking Clan’s pocket, just like every politician?
“So where is
Barrylil Opie (The Non-Hawaiian) on this issue today?”Taking a $200 million dollar a day Air Force1 trip back from Tucson, AZ…on your dime!
heheheeheee…
And we’re going to take more of his dimes….. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAA.
“Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.”
That quote is from Senator Barack Obama, in 2006, as he voted AGAINST raising the government’s debt ceiling.
Then-Senator Obama was right then, and as Congress approaches yet another debt ceiling “crisis”, those words are even more fitting today than they were four years ago.
What a difference four years make. Consider what has happened since that time:
March 2006: By a count of 52-48, the Senate votes to raise the debt ceiling by $2.8 trillion.
September 2007: The Senate votes 53-42 to increase the debt ceiling by an additional $850 billion.
July 2008: The misnamed “Housing and Economic Recovery Act” passes the Senate 72-13, raising the debt ceiling by another $800 billion.
October 2008: The Senate passes TARP 74-25, enabling bailouts and adding $700 billion more to the debt ceiling.
February 2009: The monstrous “stimulus package” passes 60-38, increasing the debt ceiling by an additional $789 billion.
February 2010: The debt ceiling is raised yet again, this time to a whopping $14 trillion.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. For decades, Congress has been routinely increasing the nation’s credit limit — saying each time that the sky will fall if they don’t.
And the sheeple and their so-called representatives fall for it every time.
Which probably explains why Dallas Federal Reserve president Richard Fisher had this to say at a recent Manhattan Institue speech:
“The Federal Reserve has held rates to nil. We have expanded our balance sheet to unprecedented levels. After much debate — which included strong concern expressed by one member with a formal vote and others, like me, who did not have voting rights in 2010 — the FOMC collectively decided in November to temporarily undertake a program to purchase U.S. Treasuries that, when added to previous policy initiatives, roughly means we are purchasing the equivalent of all newly issued Treasury debt through June.
“By this action, we have run the risk of being viewed as an accomplice to Congress’ fiscal nonfeasance. To avoid that perception, we must vigilantly protect the integrity of our delicate franchise. There are limits to what we can do on the monetary front to provide the bridge financing to fiscal sanity. Last Friday, speaking in Germany, [European Central Bank President] Jean-Claude Trichet said it best: ‘Monetary policy responsibility cannot substitute for government irresponsibility.’
“The entire FOMC knows the history and the ruinous fate that is meted out to countries whose central banks take to regularly monetizing government debt. Barring some unexpected shock to the economy or financial system, I think we have reached our limit. I would be wary of further expanding our balance sheet. But here is the essential fact I want to emphasize today: The Fed could not monetize the debt if the debt were not being created by Congress in the first place.
(via John Mauldin’s newsletter Thoughts from the Frontline)
So where is Barry on this issue today?
The real question is, where are the hope ‘n change dupes of 2008, and why are they maintaining such a cowardly silence as the Champion of Change they installed in office has turned out to be Bush Lite?
“The real question is, where are the hope ‘n change dupes of 2008, and why are they maintaining such a cowardly silence as the Champion of Change they installed in office has turned out to be Bush Lite?”
They’re too busy handing out T-shirts at funerals!
They’re too busy handing out T-shirts at funerals!
What a class act that is.
Not all who voted for him expected big changes. For some of us the McCain-Palin ticket was simply intolerable. Would we now be at war with Iran if McCain had won? Would health insurance really be much less expensive? Would the economy be in better shape?
If Ron Paul supporters want him to be a viable candidate, then they had better get him in the top spot in the Republican ticket.
Ron Paul will never get the top spot in a party as corrupt and beholden to Wall Street and its K Street bagmen as the GOP. I agree, McCain/Palin would have been at least as bad, and probably worse, then Obama. But by now it should be evident where the Republicrat duopoly’s “lesser of two evils” is getting us.
Had Ron Paul gotten the active support of even ten percent of the electorate, it would’ve sent a strong signal to both parties: the people are fed up with your corruption and toadying for Wall Street. Instead, the sheeple gave Wall Street and its servants in both parties a clear green light to continue their massive swindles against this nation’s productive classes, and future generations. I could never, in good conscience, vote for two Establishment candidates who cared so little for the national interest or the public good.
Well I remember very well how the press would not leave a microphone in that man’s hands during the debates. You won’t convince me it wasn’t intentional. I’ve never seen Anderson Cooper as rude to any guest before or after those debates as he was to Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee.
I remember at one point RP and MH looking at each other and laughing because it was so obvious but there was nothing they could do.
From Wikipedia entry on John Anderson.
“In the end, he received 7% of the vote in the election with a total of about 6 million votes. He did not carry a single precinct in the country. Anderson’s finish was still the best showing for a third party candidate since George Wallace’s 14% in 1968, and the sixth best for any such candidate in the 20th century (trailing Theodore Roosevelt’s 27% in 1912, Robert LaFollette’s 17% in 1924, Wallace, and Ross Perot’s 19% and 8% in 1992 and 1996, respectively).
During the fall campaign, Reagan and Anderson engaged in a televised debate. Although he was invited, Carter did not participate in this debate. Carter and Reagan debated each other in the penultimate week of the presidential campaign; Anderson was not invited to participate.
His inability to make headway against the de facto two party system as an independent in that election would later lead him to become an advocate for Instant Runoff Voting, helping to found FairVote in 1992.”
Since 1968, there have been 4 independent or third party candidates that received more than 5% of the vote. Only one of them got any electoral votes - Wallace. What message did they send? Wallace’s run on a segregationist platform in 1968 was instrumental in shifting Southern Democrats to the Republican party. Wallace and Anderson had no real effect on the outcome of their elections. Perot was instrumental in Clinton’s victories and Nader with only 2% of the popular vote was instrumental in handing the tight 2000 election to Bush. Nader’s Green Party supporters were ill-served by his run, since Bush was much less friendly to environmental issues than Gore. Would Gore have led us into Iraq and Afghanistan?
The net effect of voting for a third party candidate is that the winner becomes the one you least favor.
If we want this to change, then we have to change the system. Are you working to change the system? Until it changes, I will continue to choose the better of the Republican or Democrat.
John Anderson was certainly no Ron Paul. In oypther words, he was certainly no alternative to elitist control of Americans. You may think “corporate,” you may think ” government.” I prefer to use the term ” elitist.
Ok it is past 5PM on the east coast. 73 outside, just ate, but I am looking forward to fresh brewed coffee Monday morning!
“Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate, systematical plan of reducing us to slavery.”
-Thomas Jefferson
“What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
-Thomas Jefferson
if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?
Hwy (1:45am, undisclosed location): “Come on Mikey, let’s go start an up-rising!”
Mikey: “I dunno, about what?”
Hwy: “Blacks as profit machines!”
Mikey: (yawns)
Hwy: “repeal the alcohol ban!”
Mikey: (yawns again)
Hwy: “civil rights for those without ‘em!”
Mikey: “Been there, done that…” (falling asleep)
Hwy: How’s ’bout…”Reduce the Deficit NOW!”
Mikey (suddenly jumps up screaming, yelling, hollering!): “You b@stards!!!!!!!!!!!….”You b@stards!!!!!!!!!!!….Get ‘em!”
You crack me up Hwy .
20 years later, Hwy is still banging on the door of Ben’s HBB due to mikey’s endurance and their pedal powered computer at some sunny undisclosed detention center …in Cuba.
I hear the wails and read these so-called “patriots” with their claims of tryanny and their call to arms against their country.
I sincerely hope that they have a organized and well thought Super Plan when they attempt their coup d’état against the US government.
…a good Health Plan would be advisable too.
“and their call to arms against their country.”
You confuse country with government. The government is NOT the country!
“You confuse country with government. The government is NOT the country!”
Okay “countryboy”, you feel Free to have a minor or major run-in with the government of the United States and see whose head is CONFUSED.
Typically, you miss the point.
You infer that those who reble against the governmnet, are somehow “unpatriotic”. That is not true. Get it? I doubt it.
Oops, should have been “insinuate”.
I just want to point out that it is, in fact, traitors here in America that are causing this problem, and it is American citizens who have the responsibilty to solve this problem.
Seriously, you bring back the tariff and we will have jobs again, while the corporate elite will have to make due with less profit (which equates to less power too).
We should be careful not to be distracted by debates such as those raised by brahma yesterday. Like, whether or not it’s fair for India to be poor when America is not. Or whether or not we all secretly despise Indians due to their race. That is not where the solution lies, so let’s not go there.
The solution is simple. We demand that our elected representatives bring back the protectionist measures that once served us so well.
Big V .Im on your wave-length ,and I made a post that hasn’t showed up yet that goes further along the lines your talking about .
We should simply institute the same tariffs and trade restrictions as India and China and Germany employ. Let’s level the playing field.
Tariffs don’t create jobs, nor do they take away any power from the corporate elites, but thanks for playing.
Can you expound on that, LehighValleyGuy?
By my understanding, tariffs prevent excessive offshoring because they compensate for the differences in values between currencies. So if you want to produce your goods in China, then that will be fine, but you can’t reap a benefit purely from currency/wage arbitrage. In today’s environment (without sufficient tariffs and tax penalties for offshoring), the reintroduction of tariffs should create jobs rapidly.
This would reduce the power of corporate elites by forcing them pay a more natural percentage of revenues to their labor force. This narrows the wealth gap between the rich and the poor, thereby narrowing the power differential proportionately, and making our polito-economic system more holistic and healthy.
Can you explain why you believe the above statements to be untrue?
Tariffs were employed in the 1930s as a trade policy tool. How did that turn out?
PB:
But weren’t conditions totally different in the 1930s? And didn’t our offshoring woes begin in the 70s when our tariffs first began to be systematically dismantled?
“How did that turn out?”
Quite well, actually, for countries like Britain, who were a lot like us today (ie their manufacturing base was being hurt by our cheaper goods), and not well for a country like the US, who was the China of the day.
“But weren’t conditions totally different in the 1930s?”
All-out stock market meltdown? Check
Protracted period of high unemployment? Check
Myriad households deeply underwater on their loan obligations? Check
Housing prices in steep decline? Check
Countries playing beggar-thy-neighbor currency devaluation game? Check
Which conditions did you have in mind?
PB:
I was talking about the import/export equation.
Big V,
A tariff is simply a tax, whereby the government interferes with a transaction between a willing buyer and a willing seller. And like all efforts by the government to influence the economy via tax policies, tariffs have high administration costs and are subject to fraud, waste, evasion, and unintended consequences. A big one with tariffs is the risk of recriminations and retaliation from other countries.
I know a lot of people here don’t like globalization, but external trade is just as important as internal trade in promoting peace. Trade of all kinds causes people to see one another as allies and friends, rather than competitors, or racial or national adversaries. Not to mention that without external trade, we would have nothing like our present supply of food, medicine, energy, cars or computers.
Is globalization disruptive? Yes, just as new technologies are– but attempts to fight or tax globalization make no more sense than Luddite bans on technology to support workers in older industries.
I’ve said before that I think a lot of globalization is actually brought on by excessive regulation. There is an element of hypocrisy in people who think it’s great to have lots of regulations to make everything safe and fair, but when it comes time to buy goods and services, they don’t want to pay the price of making things under those regulations, so they import from countries that aren’t subject to the regs. Then they wonder why there are no jobs here.
As for corporate power, that is a separate subject. The only real solution to corporate abuses is a complete repeal of corporate law and a repudiation of the concept of limited liability. There is no way to “regulate” something that by its very charter is essentially above the law. But whenever I say this, all the anti-corporate types suddenly switch sides and start spouting MBA talking points about how corporations play vital roles in raising and deploying capital, blah, blah, blah. Again, examine your own premises. The rule of law requires that accountability and consequences of misdeeds be spelled out in advance– not evaded via corporate charters.
Lehigh:
It sounds like you’re calling to an end to government. Like, if the government didn’t have a job to do, then there would be no administrative costs and that would be better.
I’m saying that we do have a government, and so do our trading partners. We are not all on the same team, so someone is going to have to look out for our best interests. Constitutionally, that would be the job of Congress. It’s their job to write the trade agreements, so they would do better to write them properly.
If your thing is that we shouldn’t have a government because they’re only interfering, then I’d have to say that’s a bit extreme.
I haven’t expressed any opinion on whether we need a government or not. But certainly the burden of proof should be on those advocating government intervention in any area, to justify the benefits compared to the costs, and I can’t think of many times when that burden has been successfully met. Just saying, well we do have a government so we have to give it something to do, is a pretty lame argument IMO.
“I know a lot of people here don’t like globalization, but external trade is just as important as internal trade in promoting peace.”
Yeah, like when old Saddam Hussein kinda pissed us and our PTB off when he restricted oil exports to the US years ago due to our political and business ambitions but we really showed him some of that made in the USA Eternal Peace.
The US Chamber of Commerce and the conservative BS never stops or sleeps…
But Lehigh,
Regulating international and interstate trade is an enumerated power of the US Congress. No one has the burden of proof to show that they must act in this regard. It’s a Constitutional mandate.
“Countries playing beggar-thy-neighbor currency devaluation game?”
That IS about the import/export equation, and the domestic economic situation is as well, by extension. Other things equal, a lower dollar makes U.S. goods cheaper for our trade partners to purchase, but reduces the demand for the same goods produced by their domestic industries. So the natural tendency is for them to retaliate by weakening their own currency, at which point we slide towards beggar-thy-neighbor currency devaluation.
“A tariff is simply a tax, whereby the government interferes with a transaction between a willing buyer and a willing seller.”
Thank you! Simple is better when it comes to explaining the vagaries of free market economics. Why should we treat producers who live outside U.S. borders any differently than those who live within them?
“Why should we treat producers who live outside U.S. borders any differently than those who live within them?”
Oh, I dunno… because they might be trying to destroy us?
Was this a trick question?
Because they just might employ some of us.
PB:
IMO, producers living outside the US are treated differently because they are a part of a competely different system. Their currencies are weak. Their governments subsidize their companies. They do not protect their environment and the workers have no rights. There are 3 ways we can truly get to a “level playing field”:
1. Other countries go egalitarian, affording free and fair elections to their people, who then vote in representative regulations (min wage, workers rights, etc). Their governments stop subsidizing and tyranizing their industries. Now they are like us, producing within a similar system, and there is no need to treat them differntly.
2. Our country goes commie. Now we are like them, and there is no need to treat them differently. Of course we would no longer have any say in the matter at this point.
3. We get back to charging tariffs on imports as appropriate, kinda like everyone else does. This decouples our currency, political, and employment situations from theirs, making it possible for us not to have to worry too much about how to approach the enigma of various “producers” all playing completely different games on the same field.
Wrong.
Tarriffs level the currency playing field when FCB’s leverage the printing press domestically while simultaneously dumping their currency outside their own country a’la China.
And if you have any doubts, go buy some remnimbi and let us know how you make out….. mmmkay?
“Tariffs don’t create jobs, nor do they take away any power from the corporate elites, but thanks for playing.”
We can’t force other governments to give up their tariffs and trade restrictions. I am saying that our government should simply play tit-for-tat on trade. If China places a tariff on our goods, we should place a tariff on theirs.
Are you saying that we should have no tariffs or trade restrictions while other countries impose limitations on us? Sounds like a losing strategy.
I said nothing about taking power away from corporate elites. What is your recommendation in that regard?
Protectionism didn’t serve us well. The rest of the world being in dark definitely did. There are 2 things with increasing tariffs:
1. The world will definitely do the same. Not sure how does that benefit us?
2. We are still a 2nd or 3rd largest exporter. Do we really want to lose jobs in those areas? The world will definitely punish for increased traffic in US by buying less US products. Goodbye Boeing, goodbye Dell and HP.
“Protectionism” huh? LMAO.
Butters:
1. The rest of the world already employes punishing tariffs to protect their own economies. US-made products are waaaayyyy cheaper in the US than in China or India. Germany also has always had high tariffs.
2. We are a net importer. We may be the 2nd or 3rd largest exporter, but what matters to us is whether we are a net importer or a net exporter. Being a net importer means you consume more than you produce, which is not sustainable by any twist of logic.
3. Back when we had tariffs and tax penalties for offshoring, we were a net exporter. So apparently, those protectionist measures did not hurt our exporting biz in the least. Boeing has been going downhill ever since we stopped the tariffs. Dell and HP are two of the biggest offshoring culprits known to man, which does wonders for their executives, but not much for us.
HP Tech Support is worthless and all offshored. After warranty, they will not talk to you unless you pay up!
So, if other Countries increase Tariffs that will encourage production here and manufacturing .
And what are the items we are exporting ? Are they raw materials ,doubt the demand will decrease for those items . Your making a mistake in saying we are exporting . In a lot of cases American Companies are simply sitting up plants in other Countries ,in addition to outsourcing .
Are we exporting phones ,IPODS , foods ,what ?
“The world will definitely do the same.”
So if others institute tariffs, then we should, too. We should not be trading in an environment that strongly disfavors our economy in favor of other economies.
Opening China to the world economy was good if it prevented them solving their economic and population problems through war. Now that they are growing fast, it is time to stop fertilizing their economy.
We export food and fuel and financial products.
Let’s see them do without food.
We import FAR more than we export.
The post above is right in the 1930’s we were China.
Home Building, Sales Probably Languished as Market Lagged Behind Recovery (AP)
Home-building probably dropped in December and sales of existing houses struggled to rebound from a post-tax credit slump, reflecting a market trying to regain its footing more than a year into the economic recovery, economists said before reports this week.
The tolls are too damn high! And the sentence is too damn high, too! (update on our Chinese gravel hauler)
BEIJING (AP) - A judge and two court officials were suspended in a probe into a life sentence given to a Chinese farmer for evading highway tolls, after the heavy punishment triggered a public outcry, state media said Sunday.
The court in Henan province sentenced Shi Jianfeng to life in prison last week after finding him guilty of evading more than 3.68 million yuan ($560,000) in highway tolls. Fake military license plates were mounted on two trucks that carried gravel and avoided tolls more than 2,300 times because military vehicles are exempt.
Chinese Internet users argued in posts and commentaries that the penalty was excessive because shorter sentences were imposed for the more serious crimes of rape and murder. The comments also strayed beyond Shi’s case to popular complaints that highway tolls are too high.
$560k/2.3k implies a $243 toll. Maybe its a really long toll road … comprised entirely of tunnels bored through mountain terrain.
It is revealing that the Chinese government regards acts that deprive it of revenue as far more serious crimes than rape or murder.
So, when ppl argue that the Chinese “deserve” to take our jobs because they’re so poor and we’re so rich, stories like this always come to mind. It doesn’t matter how much money we give to China (in the form of jobs or aid or whatever else). As long as they are a tyrannical communist government, the people will always be oppressed. How can you make a living when they want you to pay over $200 a haul to do your business?
Once again, the only ppl who benefit from offshoring to China are the corporate elite in the US and government elite in China. We do not “raise them up” by giving them our prosperity. All we do is enable them (the Chinese government).
Yes Yes Yes ,Big V totally agree . I would like to think that my response to that Indian man yesterday ,however long winded it
was ,was a attempt on my part to attack the Globalism BS .
That’s exactly what it was, but brahma managed to distract you with issues of racism and “fairism”. Then he went on to admit that he’s about to take his American money back to India. How’s that “fair”?
In the end I called him the “Raider” that he was if you see my last post . In fact the original post I made on the history of
Raiders and Traitors was a attempt to put this whole Globalism BS in
perspective and the PR associated with it that it’s anything other than exploitation of the working class of any Country .
After the Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression and
World War II ,a period emerged in which the middle class gained ground ,a lot of ground . IMHO ,it was one of the best periods
for capitalism and the balance of power . What in the hell do we got now .
I missed the brahma exchange yesterday, I’ll go review it shortly.
Big V, you are bringing up some very good points today. Is that really you at the keyboard or is your husband using your handle?
Sorry, I said that just to whack the hornets nest a little.
It was purely in jest (but you have to admit you had a short blood pressure spike)
I don’t have a husband anymore.
I’m trying to type this while trying to pull my feet out of my mouth.
I had no idea and if there is a nerve there I wasn’t trying to hit it.
“I don’t have a husband anymore.”
His loss.
As our crony capitalist system increasingly turns to “public-private partnerships,” whereby governments abdicate their traditional responsibility for infrastructure and allow their rapacious corporate-cartel sponsors to take over toll roads, bridges, etc., we’ll see similar price-gouging and fines here, too.
BINGO
This will be the final rape of America.
Tracing the signs of foreclosure traps
By Christine Stapleton Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 9:43 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 15, 2011
WEST PALM BEACH — Somewhere, presumably Georgia, lives a woman named Linda Green. According to investigators, her signature - and variations of it - appears on hundreds of thousands of questionable mortgage documents.
One of those homes belongs to Lynn Szymoniak, a Palm Beach Gardens lawyer who specializes in white-collar crime. Szymoniak, 61, has ferreted out economic crimes for years and federal prosecutors have called her as an expert witness in four trials. In July 2008, after negotiations with her lender over an increase to her adjustable-rate mortgage failed, she received foreclosure papers on her home.
What she saw “made no sense.”
The company servicing her mortgage was in Dallas. Linda Green was in Alpharetta, Ga. S zymoniak launched an investigation of her own foreclosure.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/real-estate/tracing-
the-signs-of-foreclosure-traps-1188396.html - -
Name: SZYMONIAK LYNN E
Mailing Address: 8268 MAN O WAR RD
PALM BEACH GARDENS FL 33418 7719
Apr-1998 10392/0989 $392,800 WARRANTY DEED
SZYMONIAK LYNN E
1. BAS BASE AREA 3018
2. FOP FINISHED OPEN PORCH 275
3. FOP FINISHED OPEN PORCH 105
4. FGR FINISHED GARAGE 736
Total Square Footage : 4134
Total Area Under Air : 3018
Year Built 1991
POOL - IN-GROUND 1991
This house is in Steeplechase in PBG. Exclusive neighborhood where homes went for over a million at the peak. I would be willing to bet this “expert witness” victim took out at least $300k in a cash out refi.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/real-estate/tracing-the-signs-of-foreclosure-traps-1188396.html - -
Maybe this will work.
If anyone wants to see how nasty these victims are, click this link and scroll down to the COMMENTS.
I especially like the rebuttal comments by one Mr. Saturday. You really stirred up an angry FBhive of “victims”
Jeff, I tried to post a comment as well, but it wouldn’t let me. FBs clearly prefer to be thought of as completely innocent victims, even when they’re just as guilty as the fraudsters foreclosing on them.
Here’s what I wrote, Jeff - feel free to post it under your name if you want:
“There are two related issues here. First, the greedy Donald Trump wannabes who bought into the notion that “housing only goes up” and bought more house than they could prudently afford, or used their homes as ATMs to extract equity. Then there is the massive, systemic fraud the entire US financial system is floating on. But since the Fed, Congress, and the Administration are throwing trillions at Wall Street to keep the Ponzi scheme going, that fraud will continue unabated.”
You are posted Sammy.
Thanks for kicking the hive!
“Thanks for kicking the hive!”
It gives me something to do while the house prices crash.
Someone named “jbunniii” kicked in with the following comment:
While there may be some legal doubt as to exactly who owns the house at this point, the fact that Ms. Syzmoniak has stopped paying the mortgage pretty much excludes her as a candidate.
You guys are the cavalry.
Its not like the lending Ponzi scheme didn’t take place in other countries in which their people ended up overpaying for real estate . This was a World-wide Ponzi -scheme . Look at the Brits and all their second homes that are crashing in value .
If current list prices are any indication of where this year’s housing market is going, it looks like we should be signing that year lease on the rental. Houses on the same street have sat for almost a year and yet sellers of new listings put their homes on for more and in one case more than their last list price that they had before taking it off 2 years ago. Apparently they believe the stock markets are the only indicators necessary. Realtor acquaintences tell me yesterday was a busy day. Looking at my hometown listings on the coast, it appears the same phenomenon is occuring there. List prices going back up despite increasing taxes, increasing mortgage rates, etc.
I’m seeing something similar. A few (just a few) homes that were taken off the market last fall and early winter are now back on the market at slightly higher asking prices than before.
There IS some movement here, so it would be very interesting to know what the local realtors are telling sellers right now.
It’s funny you should bring up current listings. I found two homes in the same neighborhood, one is $450K (pool) and is just under 300 sq ft bigger than the other one at $359K w/ no pool, but both have about the same thing going. The $359K was reduced $50K last month, and still no bites. Both need updating and fixing, and both were built in 1964. I hope they both sit. (So Ca)
I drove the area yesterday, and it’s a nice neighborhood at a reasonable price. It’s not a $400K neighborhood to say the least.
“If current list prices are any indication of where this year’s housing market is going,…”
The indications I take from current list prices in SD are (1) there will be a very low volume of transactions; (2) prices will continue to slide, as the few transactions that take place tend to happen at price levels well below the average wishing price on comparable properties.
Inventory is down around 30% from its high in the late summer of 2010 (95050-95054)…
It’s the same old shit folks….. it was grossly inflated transactions that created the debacle and it’s grossly inflated list prices that continues and extends the debacle. I certainly don’t see anything but declining sales volume. Pay attention to the data my HBB brothers and sisters. Sales are down and will remain so in the absence of phony financing.
I mentioned last week that the price on a dump we were looking was raised 10%. it didn’t sell before the price increase and it won’t sell with the price increase. Big $#%ing deal. And I mentioned a layoff might be in my future at the end of my current project so I’m happy I still have my $$$ and MOBILITY(not to say there’s much work outside the northeast).
I’m confident in how we at the HBB view the 100 year history of housing sales and prices and I won’t be fooled into the worn out Realtor Crime Syndicate mantra. They can lie until the cows come home but that won’t change 100 years of history. The Exeter Clan has gone without being anchored to a shanty for over 10 year now.
I tried to post an article a bit earlier but I think its source via a web site may have gotten it nixed. The original source was Canadian but it quoted American professors talking about American markets.
It spoke about the next housing recession down the pike when the boomers start selling their homes en masse. It spoke of the Gen Y not having enough numbers to buy up all those large homes w/big yards far away from their employment. And it also mentioned the amount of foreigners that would have to come in to take up the slack.
I have my doubts about the 10 year time frame the author zeroed in on because I’m not convinced people w/o lots of retirement savings are going to be leaving their paid off homes. Like my grandma they’ll stay in there till the end perhaps taking in a younger relative or two to watch over them and share the costs.
But let’s keep our focus moving down the years here. A 10 year old book I’ve got about cycling over 50 claims that one out of every three Americans is a boomer. Let that one sink in. Eventually this bulge will start moving into its elderly years and then we’ll be in the midst of a boomer die off. Now that’s when I think housing will really drop off a cliff. (20+ years away….yeah just when I’ll be taking that late retirement)
Carrie…. it’s already happening.
Even more importantly, banks are now walking away.
Build a man a fire, and he will be warm for the night. Light a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life.
That sounds so,…Republican
(Bill Murray (Razor’s Edge) freezing in a Himalayan snow cave, smiling…tearing out x1 page at a time of his scared wisdom books to feed a fire to stay warm…)
har
Take opportunity from a man and be burden with his demands for eternity. Provide opportunity for a man and your burden has been lifted for eternity.
so true exeter
Reading from the sanitized version of the Constitution. Kind of like the public school version of Huckleberry Finn.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans and Democrats took turns politely in a historic recitation of the Constitution from the House floor Thursday, but the decorum hardly meant they were in agreement.
In a nod to the tea partiers who put the Republicans in power, GOP lawmakers took time out from their campaign to change the way government works to read the document upon which the government was founded. Democrats went along but pointedly questioned the Republicans’ insistence on omitting sections that show how the Constitution has changed over time - such as one that classified a slave as three-fifths of a person.
The reading also skipped the Eighteenth Amendment that was ratified in 1919 to institute prohibition of alcohol. That amendment was overturned in 1933 by the Twenty-First Amendment.
For the first hour of the recital the Republican side of the chamber was full, while far fewer Democrats occupied the other side. After an hour, the number of Republican listeners also declined.
I guess they didn’t realize it would last longer than an episode of Dancing with a Billionaire.
The Constitution has been amended 27 times, most recently in 1992. It’s too bad you can’t indicate strikeout text when read it it aloud.
Aren’t the amendments themselves the ’strikeout text’?
What a farce. Both parties have demonstrated they have no intention of upholding the Constitution or Bill of Rights.
…and publicly, for the Congressional record.
In a recent internal debate, he said, one of his senior colleagues had argued that the hollowing-out of the American middle class didn’t really matter. “His point was that if the transformation of the world economy lifts four people in China and India out of poverty and into the middle class, and meanwhile means one American drops out of the middle class, that’s not such a bad trade,” the CEO recalled.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/01/the-rise-of-the-new-global-elite/8343/
Great article. A snippet:
“Speaking at the same conference, Thomas Wilson, CEO of Allstate, also lamented this global reality: “I can get [workers] anywhere in the world. It is a problem for America, but it is not necessarily a problem for American business … American businesses will adapt.”’
Thanks, guys!
There are two problems with this line of reasoning, as follows:
1. CEOs in the United States have not been granted the authority to decide whether or not to protect our economy. On the contrary, it is the voting citizens of this country who have been granted that authority, and for very good reason. If the corporatists would like to “bring up” the Chinese, then by all means, let them contribute to the charity of their choosing. But if the corporatists wish to achieve this goal by offshoring our prosperity, then they will have a bit of a fight on their hands, eh?
2. It is not within the power of US business, or US government, or US anything to transform China. They are a communist government and, as shuch, their people will always be oppressed (unless their government actually makes its own changes). By giving 3 or 4 Chinese ppl a job and taking 1 job from an American, we are not really bringing those 3-4 ppl up. We are really only allowing HUGE profits to be taken by the corporations that are exploiting those 3-4 ppl, while simultaneously giving even more power to the Chinese government, which is in direct control of Chinese business. At the same time, we are taking power from the US worker because his vote just got a little less powerful when weighed against the increased capital of his ex-boss. That’s how corruption starts to get out of control. The truth is, if we hadn’t given those jobs to those ppl, then those ppl would not have become so complacent with their tyranical government, and they might have actually attempted to increase wages in China through some serious reform of the politco-ecomic system over there. The trade is not “sacrifice one American for the good of all”. It’s more like “bring the Americans down to the level of the powerless Chinese peasant for the good of the elite”.
Yes ,yes ,yes Big V ,well said ,totally agree . While it could be a communist government that is taking the lions share of the production of it’s people ,or if its the Corporation elite fleecing the
people ,the fact remains that the people aren’t up lifted like the PR they want you to believe.
So you got the Repub saying the problem is government and you have the Dems saying the problem is not enough government ,but the real truth is that the Elite is fleecing us and they have no problem playing both sides ,thats why they always support both parties these days .
“But if the corporatists wish to achieve this goal by offshoring our prosperity, then they will have a bit of a fight on their hands, eh?”
Uh… no. We’ve rolled right over and those who didn’t, were labeled libruls and condemned on neocon hate radio.
For the last 30 years.
The “corporatists” and Wall St. are the same people and The Business Roundtable was formed in 1972 to act as a “senate” for the, then, Fortune 200. They’ve been conspiring and colluding ever since. It is they who run this country, not “the people.”
OK ……I love this article ,its a must read ….Thanks for posting ELectricSheep.
Ok this article “The Rise Of The New Global Elite “,goes to the heart of what I have been trying to say for years now . I have often said that
this group feels ” The World Is Their Oyster ” and they are raiders that
could care less what happens to Main Street . When you look at their financial Ponzi -schemes ,they are criminal actually . They are looters
really . This is the group that should pay for the damage to America . This is the group that got bailed out and kept their billions . They aren’t making millions ,they are making billions . There isn’t any
loyalty to the USA and this group is perfectly willing to exploit another
Countries work force ……it’s wherever the action is that they can
produce the most ill-gotten quick gains ,and our government is in
bed with them .
They use their money for PR campaigns to take the heat off themselves and they spend millions to bribe our Government . This
is why the big disconnect between our Politicians and the people . They say one thing and than vote another way ,there is a serious disconnect .
There was a take-over and the Traitors are ready to move on to where the actions is ,never mind the fleeced debt ridden has been Americans .Just cut their salaries and Pensions ,let the Government/taxpayers come up with the money and take all Social
nets from the people ,because someone other than the fleecers have to pay . Take all gains that Americans have made regarding middle class gains as far as sharing a piece of the American pie and reduce Americans to low wage workers and throw large populations into poverty ,and let it be the Governments problem with the reduced
tax base ,but never tax them those Elites .
From the day that Hank Paulson walked on the stage with his bogus bail outs to Obstruct Justice and take the exposure off the elite ,as well as the liability ,its been one con job after another .
If you were ever going to listen to Housing Wizard listen to me now .
This elite is so evil that they are trying to bit generation against generation ,American against American ,they just want their takeover to continue ,never mind avoiding their liability .
We have been watching for years now a number of acts that have made no sense what-so -ever . Black is white ,dogs sleeping with cats ,up is really down ,reward the criminals ,lack of enforcement of laws ,cover-ups, obstruction of justice .
Make no mistake ,there is and has been a take-over going on for a while that threatens America as we have known it . You don’t have to believe me ,but maybe you can see that you are being asked to give up ,give up ,but it doesn’t entirely make sense .
Look you guys ,until the American People as a whole can see the real untold story ,they can’t be effective for change .
As the article suggests, the act of throwing people into poverty is of no concern to the Elite Power Players which also include monopolistic
Corporations .
Now they have the sheep engaged in distraction with the fights between the Dems and the Repub , but not much talk about the real
problems ,just fake talk about how the people have to give up and who are the winners and losers going to be while the Elite took the ill-gotten gain and ran . They should pay ,they should pay and they also should be put back in their place because they are traitors to the
USA ,yet they own the lawmakers . The favorable laws that they have gotten has just been destructive to the USA ,and hasn’t made sense .
We have much more than a moral hazard problem here ,we have a takeover problem here . If you were ever going to listen to Housing Wizard ,please listen to me now .Read this article that was posted
and its a start at understanding the degree of the takeover and it
explains the Power Brokers acts that have not made sense .
Just my 2 cents ,but as each day passes there is urgency by which
the tides have to turn . I have already been fleeced and my objective is to simply expose the truth that I didn’t even want to see and couldn’t believe at first that this could happen .
Exactly.
Loooongtime lurker. Attached myself back during the Gekko and Txchick heydeys.
Read this article the other day, and thought of you all.
It’s good to be back in the fray.
ElectricSheep …come out more .
Every once in a while I’ll crawl out from under my rock–hand clutched tightly ’round my tinfoil hat.
I’m honestly humbled by the amount of knowledgeable people on this blog. Everyone (usually) has something positive to contribute.
Wiz, you yourself have broken down topics on finance and economics that I would have had trouble digesting on my own.
The oncoming/ongoing “Great Deleverage” doesn’t have to mean that there’s also a dearth of ideas that might lead us out of it…
This blog keeps me sane.
Well , I think the truth sets people free to really constructively
work on solutions . All the BS just serves to divert people from
solutions and the unjust culprits,that love diversion ,get their way . Keep the people fighting with each other ,transfer the blame ,ask what they can do for their Country when it’s really for the super-rich .They rely on people having a short memory
and the fact that people are busy and they give you give you little tokens to settles the masses down . They will give you 250 dollars and than rob you of thousands and thousand in one way or another .If its going to be a rigged system to this degree ,whereby they end up with all the chips ,than it’s got to be stopped and people regain their power . All those corrupt bums should of been given their walking papers in
Congress . I don’t know how to overcome the fact that they have the advantage over new Politicians ,in fact they have the resources to make the new ones or destroy ones that might be out for the people politician . Look at what they do ,not what they say .
As long as the CEO becomes fabulously wealthy, it doesn’t matter whether there’s a middle class does it? As long as they get it all, nothing else matters.
That’s part of it but not the whole picture.
The best quote of the article.
“I heard a similar sentiment from the Taiwanese-born, 30-something CFO of a U.S. Internet company. A gentle, unpretentious man who went from public school to Harvard, he’s nonetheless not terribly sympathetic to the complaints of the American middle class. “We demand a higher paycheck than the rest of the world,” he told me. “So if you’re going to demand 10 times the paycheck, you need to deliver 10 times the value. It sounds harsh, but maybe people in the middle class need to decide to take a pay cut.”
He is oh, so right. You got me started. Also Lehigh made a good point that there is a fine line between exacting tariffs to prevent the bleed off of jobs and exacting too much tariffs to start protectionism globally, which thus removes what is left of international civility.
Imagine if we enacted painful tariffs on China, population many times that of America. China would become far less civil yo us, probably annex Taiwan for starters, but be far from finished with empire-building. See America’ s weakened defense and take over more and more of our interests without firing a shot.
Bill I have always predicted that Taiwan would be the reason for ww3 not Israel Iran or Iraq ….what would we do if they blockaded the island and wanted it back?
probably annex Taiwan
Yeah, that’s why we were so screwed back when had tariffs. Because those were taxes that kept us poor. Good thing we’re all rich now, due to the lack of tariffs currently.
Not to be rude, but I feel there is a lack of honesty in a conversation where one party LITERALLY FAILS TO ACKNOWLEDGE what we are observing before our very eyes.
butters:
Our paychecks are only 10x higher in US dollars. When adjusted for currency valuations, they are not 10x higher. In addition, business operations in communist places such as China are a lot more expensive than it appears because the government takes so much of it. That’s why workers in China are so poor. I disagree that American workers should willingly lay down their power and “take a paycut” so that we can live like poor Chinese people, especially when the American CEO is sitting there sucking up all that extra money. In China, it’s the government that makes business inefficient by taking too much of the profit and controlling too much of the activity. In the US, it’s the CEO who does the same.
Don’t be fooled by CEOs who pretend to be working toward the greater good, asking YOU to make sacrifices, while THEY live larger by the day. I think it’s time for the American upper class to take a paycut, and I think we should all vote to protect our best interests.
Good post Big V ….Back when America was functioning at its best ,and capitalism was functioning at its best ,the Corporations took a much smaller profit margin and the CEO’s
did not get these absurd salaries . The idea of steady long term growth was the mindset of Corporations .Certain regulations
kept the Bankers and Wall Street in their place and the people did make gains in employment laws . Corporations would actually keep employees during recessions a lot of times rather than cut them loose .
Where is the job creation …….must be in some other
Country ….guess the America people have to apply there….
oh that Country isn’t stupid enough to give Americans jobs
And the cost of living is different in different places ,so its absurd to think that you can establish competition from the
lowest wage base Country .
And on top of everything else that junk we import is crap .
Would he have had the same opportunities if our middle class higher paychecks hadn’t kept Taiwan from being crushed by the victorious communists? You’re welcome.
yeah!
“So if you’re going to demand 10 times the paycheck, you need to deliver 10 times the value.”
And just what have those very same CEO’s done, in terms of value, to justify their stupendously higher compensation?
Given the performance of many of those companies, they should be compensated far less than they were. If you run a company into the ground, why should you be compensated far more or even still have your job?
““We demand a higher paycheck than the rest of the world,” he told me. “So if you’re going to demand 10 times the paycheck, you need to deliver 10 times the value. It sounds harsh, but maybe people in the middle class need to decide to take a pay cut.””</I.
That “unpretentious man” is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
The fact is, we have the highest productivity per worker in the entire world… with the least amount of benefits.
In other words, he is a liar and a tool.
Wells Fargo delaying foreclosure? couldn’t be….
Wells Fargo & Co. has stopped foreclosing on the NASCAR Plaza office tower in uptown.
The lender started foreclosure proceedings in November after being sued by its co-lender, Regions Bank, which claimed Wells “failed and refused to take timely action to collect” on the loan after the tower’s developers stopped paying on the loan in December 2009.
A foreclosure hearing had been scheduled for Nov. 30 and then rescheduled for Jan. 5 so the parties could continue negotiations, according to court filings. The case was voluntary dismissed without prejudice by the lender Dec. 31.
Wells declined to comment.
Standing 19 stories tall, the office tower has struggled to attract tenants since opening last spring and has remained more than 60 percent vacant.
Since the tower was announced, the uptown office vacancy rate has skyrocketed to more than 12 percent, up from 3 percent at the end of 2007, the year developers took out the loan.
An affiliate of Indiana-based Lauth Property Group Inc., Corporate Plaza Partners defaulted on a $95 million loan after it matured in November, according to court filings. The borrower owed more than $70 million.
Regions and San Francisco-based Wells Fargo each put up half of the loan, but Wells is charged with administering it.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Indiana in July, Regions claims a Wells Fargo officer as recently as June 24 indicated the lenders faced a $30 million to $40 million loss on the loan because of rising vacancy rates in uptown’s office market.
Regions also says in its filings that Wells made a “shocking” proposal around June 17 to buy Regions’ share of the loan for roughly 42 cents on the dollar.
BTW, improving CR default rates is the biggest lie going…
Read more: http://www.thatsracin.com/2011/01/05/53433/bank-halts-nascar-plaza-foreclosure.html#ixzz1BCsNERm8
BTW, improving CR default rates is the biggest lie going… ??
Commercial real estate is on its back….It just fly’s under the radar of the MSM…Just talk to anyone who owns if you want to know the real story…I just learned this last week at lunch with a good friend who owns a lot of commercial real estate;
On Car Dealership Row in San Jose….Buyer spends north of 10-mil buying and developing a high end used car dealership and service facility….He lasted two years…Bank took the property back…6-mil loan on the property…New buyer bought if from the Bank for 3-mil….Thats right folks…50 cents on the dollar for the Bank and a Net 4-mil+ loss for the previous buyer…
Why should Regions accept Well’s paltry 42 cents on the dollar, when Bernanke and the Administration will ensure that taxpayers pay 100 cents on the dollar?
The mutton is too damn high!
Washington Post
IN WINDERMERE, ENGLAND The rolling hills of the English Lake District, home to the stories of Peter Rabbit and endless acres of misty farms, seem the last place on Earth for a crime wave. But farmer, beware: Thieves are stalking the puffy white gold of the British countryside.
“They want our sheep,” said Andrew Allen, 46, surveying his flock, now thinned after the recent theft of 45 head.
Allen is one of 19 farmers to fall prey to sheep rustlers in the majestic lake region over the past 12 months, with the thefts here only one part of a bizarre surge in rural crime that has seen incidents of sheep rustling skyrocket across Britain.
The culprit? Globalization.
“There is no doubt that this is directly related to food prices,” said Tim Price, spokesman for the National Farmers Union Mutual, Britain’s largest agricultural insurer. “The prices went up, and so did the thefts.”
This month, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said that its food price index - which includes wholesale costs for such commodities as wheat, corn, sugar, dairy products and meat - had climbed to a record high.
Farm thefts are significantly up world wide.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/691228/shaun_the_sheep/
Hwy…How in the world do you find this stuff ?
Wunnerful!
“They want our sheep,” said Andrew Allen
Perverts.
Now, now. They’re not doing anything ‘naughty’ to the sheep. Just killing, skinning, dismembering, and eating them.
Maybe America can export its sheep to make up for the thefts. Republicrat voters, please report to the nearest dock.
“The prices went up …”
And the supply of cash went down.
Where is everyone? Just finished 2 miles of fitness swimming and working on my coffee (where there is free WiFi).
One thing I noticed is the University Mall near USF has been looking sadly deserted - the part west of Macy’s. I noticed this also before the winter solstice days too. On the other hand some places near the university are packed in the evenings around 7:30. Mr. dunderbak is a German beer joint and you have to idle your car at the end of the parking lot to wait for someone to leave. One I waited seven minutes.
I see development in New Tampa, like behind LA Fitness. Looks like a developer is about to break ground. But I think the area is overbuilt. Maybe people are moving into New Tampa to escape urban blight. That is how Fresno, California has been for decades. Throwaway homes sold every five years as people moved further north.
Escaping urban blight is a fool’s game. Your current house depreciates or at best does not keep up with inflation and you pay broker fees going to the newer safer area. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Prime real estate is coastal, where you have ocean breezes and no ice storms or hurricanes. So I still am fixated on the central California coast. I want space between me and neighbors too. My only drawback is potential arthritis.
FWIW, winters were cold and wet enough even in SoCal to make me stay indoors most of the time. And I couldn’t in my wildest dreams afford a house close enough to the beach to enjoy those “coastal breezes.” The inland valleys, even pricey ones like Rancho Bernardo, would get hot as hell in the summer.
As for the east coast, its humidty and bug infestation are major turn offs for me.
Oh, I did not mind cold wet winters. Fresno winters usually are foggy and low temps at 32, but I don’t ever recall icy roads. lA winters are much warmer than California farm belt winters. Most of my net worth is in tax shelters now, which makes California attractive for retirement. Ten percent sales taxes, well I don’t mind. I would have a garden to grow vegetables and barter.
Oh, we don’t get ice storms out here for some reason, been here 15 years and still haven’t seen one. People who move here from Wisconsin seem to think Colorado is some kind of paradise. It’s all relative I guess.
Is that a major migration path? Do a lot of people move from Wisconsin to Colorado? I thought that Midwesterners were mostly moving south to places like Florida and Arizona.
For some reason we get a lot of cheese heads here. When I ask why they moved here they always say “The Weather”
When I remind them that it snows here they just laugh.
Doesn’t surprise me. Mountains, hills and rivers make Colorado special.
So I still am fixated on the central California coast ??
Heading down to Pismo Beach tomorrow….It will be clear sky’s and only 70 degrees so I will do my best to gut-check my way through it…How’s the weather your way Rancher ??
A week of freezing evenings followed by three
nights with the temps in the high 30’s. Lots of rain, grounds saturated, run-off high, rivers rising. Daytime in the mid 40’s.
Pismo is our favorite stopping place on the coast.
We park the coach and unhook the jeep and head
into town for chowder, or head for Avila beach for a great lunch.
Ever gone to Hunter Legget?
A week of freezing evenings followed by ??
Yeah, I kinda new that already…I was just teasing you…
We park the coach and unhook the jeep and head into town for chowder, or head for Avila beach for a great lunch ??
Not sure where you stay Rancher but we stay here;
Pismo Coast Village RV Resort - Pismo Beach, CAFor 2007/2008, 1999, 1997, and 1995 Pismo Coast Village RV Resort was awarded National RV Park of the Year -
We also tow a Jeep but what is nice about this park is that it has direct access to the Beach and is just a few short blocks to walk into town…Its one of our favorite spots…We throw the dogs in the Jeep once a day and head over to Avila Beach and let them run on the Beach…
“Pismo Coast Village RV Resort”
Looks like a great place to see the Fourth of July fireworks.
You will likely never get in on July 4th…I would suspect they are probably already booked and this is a very large RV park…
This park is very busy during the summer…From mid June through the 1st week in September…Lots, & Lots of groups and kids…Its very kid friendly and the Adults like it for the reasons I described above…We don’t mind the kids at all in fact we enjoy watching all their energy get cut loose its just that there are so many….Hundreds… You need to drive with extreme caution because they are darting out everywhere including after dark…We just choose to stay away during this period of time…
We’ve stayed there but like the state park because of the spacing. Much more room and
you’re not on top of each other.
Why did you have to bring this up? Cruel,
sadistic, and mean spirited. I’ll be back in a bit, got to go out to the coach and see if it’s
fueled up and ready to go……..
A couple of decades ago my favorite place was Baja, long before you heard of cartels. We used to camp on the beach at San Felipe. Very rustic, but cheap. We had booze and M100s. Locals would come up to us with huge shrimp for us to buy and grill. The only time we went into town a mile or two away was when we ran out of either M100s or booze.
There was an RV spot on the south side of town. I will never forget it. My buddy and his wife were into RVs even in their late 20s. He pointed out $300,000 motor homes when he went along with the gang to San Felipe on one of our trips. This was in 1990.
Bill I was in san filipe years before you on one of my cross country college summer driving trips from CT….and what i remember most was beautiful beaches and at the end of the road in the middle of nowhere Parking Meters…..in Mehiko…
who owned that concession?
This might be of direct business interest to Ben:
Posted on Sunday, 01.16.11
Washington Report
‘FLIP’ RULES ARE NO FLOP
The Obama administration is relaxing the rules that stifled quick resales.
By Kenneth Harney
WASHINGTON — Definitely not. A classic real-estate flip involves the quick resale of a house or condominium at a significantly higher price than the purchaser paid with only cosmetic improvements to the property, if any at all. Sometimes only the contract itself is being signed over to a new buyer at a higher price.
A transaction in Florida last year illustrates the concept: An investor bought 19 condo units in a financially distressed Miami development for $1.25 million. She closed on the deal and then resold the units barely 20 minutes later to another investor for $1.45 million – a $200,000 instant profit. “That was a pretty impressive flip, even for this market,” says Peter Zalewski, founder of Condo Vultures LLC, a firm that tracks condo activity in the Miami area and advises investors.
The Obama administration plan has no connection with deals like these, though the word “flipping” is in its title. A little history: For years, the federal government had prohibited the use of FHA mortgage financing by buyers purchasing homes from sellers who had owned the property for less than 90 days. The idea was to prevent speculators from defrauding the government through quick flips of houses — usually involving straw buyers and corrupt appraisers — at wildly inflated prices.
One side effect of that policy, however, had been to stifle purchase-and-renovate projects by legitimate, small-scale investors who buy houses after foreclosure or loan defaults and then resell them in substantially improved condition. In many parts of the country, first-time and moderate-income buyers often sought to buy these fixed-up houses using FHA-insured mortgages with 3.5 percent down payments, but were prevented from doing so by the long-standing “anti-flipping” rules.
This, in turn, left large numbers of foreclosed, vacant houses sitting unsold and deteriorating, with negative effects on the values of neighboring properties.
Last January, FHA Commissioner David H. Stevens announced a one-year suspension of that rule, permitting qualified buyers to obtain FHA mortgages on properties that were acquired by rehabbers less than 90 days before. The plan, set to expire at the end of this month, came with key safeguards for purchasers, including inspections and multiple appraisals in some cases to document the amounts spent by investors on the improvements.
Vicki Bott, deputy assistant secretary for single family housing at FHA, confirmed in an interview that the agency expects to continue the policy for another year, and hopes to make a formal announcement soon. Not only have first-time buyers responded overwhelmingly to the opportunity to buy “turn-key” renovated homes with low down payments, she said, but they have performed well on their mortgage obligations.
…
She closed on the deal and then resold the units barely 20 minutes later to another investor for $1.45 million – a $200,000 instant profit. “That was a pretty impressive flip, even for this market,”
Her real profit from this “Single-Transaction Deposit” will come a little further down the road,…after she publishers her book “How I became a millionaire, and you can too!” buy it on the HSN @ $19.99 + FREE Sham-WOW!
That was one big nickel she picked up in front of the oncoming steam roller!
This is practically a non-story.
It will be entertaining to look back at articles like this one after the Canadian real estate bubble has finally popped. That said, the snarky commentator quoted in the article makes a point: It was U.S. politicians (including Alan Greenspan) who gutted the underwriting standards that protected the soundness of U.S. mortgages as an asset class.
Posted on Sunday, 01.16.11
Few foreclosures, no bank failures: Canada offers lessons
By KEVIN G. HALL
McClatchy Newspapers
TORONTO — Maybe Canada has something to teach the U.S. about housing finance.
One in four U.S. homes is thought to be worth less that the mortgage being paid on it. One in every 492 U.S. homes received a foreclosure notice in November. For the fourth year running, analysts are speculating on where the bottom is for U.S. real estate.
No such worries up here in Canada - yet its system of mortgage finance gets little attention in the U.S.
Not a single Canadian bank failed during the Great Depression, and not a single one failed during the recent U.S. crisis now dubbed the Great Recession. Less than 1 percent of all Canadian mortgages are in arrears.
That’s notable given that the recent U.S. economic turmoil was triggered by a meltdown in mortgage finance, forcing an unprecedented government rescue of Wall Street investment banks and the collapse of more than 300 smaller banks as the housing sector went bust.
How did Canada avoid all that?
“This sounds very simple, but one of our CEOs has said we are in the business of making loans to people who will pay them back,” said Terry Campbell, vice president of policy for the Canadian Bankers Association in Ottawa.
…
Funny that ppl from other countries actually think that Alan Greenspan was a politician. Also funny that anyone would think the Federal Reserve has control over underwriting standards.
“…think that Alan Greenspan was a politician…”
That was actually my own veiled editorial remark…what evidence do you have to the contrary?
o.
I was actually hoping someone would vehemently correct me, explaining why AG was not a politician.
Do you have an explanation to offer?
cause he doesn’t get elected by ppl, but he gets appointed by the President, who chooses him from a list made by banks.
I am fully aware of the technical reasons he is not a politician. I was commenting on the unprecedented degree he used his Fed chairmanship as a bully pulpit to encourage American households to financially hang themselves by making stoopid moves like cashing out their home equity.
The national rate of foreclosures (one in 45) is on the same order of magnitude as in the bubble states (e.g. one in 25 for CA), showing once again that most bubble-era real estate financing was global.
Foreclosures hitting the ‘new poor’
BY RUSS ZIMMER • CentralOhio.com • January 16, 2011
The foreclosure crisis always has been a different animal in Ohio than in other parts of the country, according to housing advocates.
Here, it has been affected as much by disappearing jobs as by shady lenders.
Everyone knows 2009 and 2010 were not banner years for job retention and creation in the Buckeye State, so while rising foreclosure rates shouldn’t be a surprising, where they increasingly occur very well could be.
In 2010, more than 1 million U.S. homes were lost to foreclosure and another 1.9 million were somewhere in the default process, according to RealtyTrac, a California data supplier specializing in foreclosed real estate.
Those 2.9 million homes are the most recorded by RealtyTrac, which predicts 2011 will be even worse. Default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions are included in RealtyTrac’s figure.
Ohio, led by Marion County, had one foreclosure for every 47 homes and closely tracked the national average of one for every 45.
In the last half of the year, more than 20,000 homes in Ohio were repossessed by a lender, according to the most recent data provided by RealtyTrac.
…
Chicago-area foreclosures soar 20% in 2010
By Mary Ellen Podmolik
Posted Thursday at 8:36 a.m.
A vacant home in Chicago Lawn, Feb. 16, 2009. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
Bank repossessions of foreclosed homes in the Chicago region soared almost 20 percent, to more than 45,000 properties in 2010, despite various government and lender programs designed to keep people in their properties and a slowdown in fourth-quarter activity due to investigations of foreclosure procedures, new data show.
According to RealtyTrac, the online marketplace for foreclosure properties, 45,555 homes became bank-owned last year in the area between the Wisconsin border and northwest Indiana.
Also during the year, mortgage servicers filed 83,429 initial notices of default, the first step in the foreclosure process.
…
Asia Times Online
Jan 15, 2011
No hunger at the Fed
By Hossein Askari and Noureddine Krichene
Food and energy prices are raging upwards once again, forcing governments in China, India, Brazil, Russia, and others to ring the alarm bells. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has announced that in December 2010 food price inflation broke records, with the world food price index exceeding its peak level of 2008.
With gold prices racing beyond $1,400/ounce, rising by 30% in 2010, oil prices about to cross the $100/barrel, rising by 25% in 2010, and the US dollar crumbling, it is hardly surprising to see food prices also explode at alarming rates.
…
The contrast between US perceptions and policies and that of much of the world is startling. While a number of major countries are battling inflation and are alarmed by food and fuel price inflation, Bernanke is battling low inflation, or imaginary deflation, and is determined to inject US$600 billion to prevent low inflation and achieve higher inflation, as per the Fed’s mandate to achieve full-employment.
Bernanke’s theory could imply that 10% inflation per year is better than 3%, 50% is better than 10%, and 100% is better than 50%. Even though a large number of US consumers are suffering from higher fuel and food prices, with about 50 million on food stamps, there seems to be little sympathy from the Fed.
Believing Bernanke’s testimony that food and energy price inflation raises real incomes and that by itself brings prosperity would be hardly sensible. If a politician were to tell consumers in India that they should be happy to see onion prices double from what they were just a few months ago as this was a sure sign of pending prosperity, he would be ridiculed. Similarly, if a politician tells Chinese consumers that they should be happy with cooking oil prices three times the level of a few months ago they would think him insensitive to the plight of the average Chinese.
Nonetheless, supporters of inflationism regard higher inflation as the best strategy for promoting growth and full-employment. How high inflation should be? Inflationists portray money printing as conducive to real economic growth. It costs nothing to print paper money. So why deprive the state, consumers, and firms from free wealth and from lavish spending? It would be preposterous to deny government and consumers money when money is costless to print!
…
Onion prices have doubled? Let them eat shallots!
Let them eat shallots ??
I pickle about a dozen jars of shallots every year…
Maybe they need a connection to Wikileeks….
Bernanke is battling low inflation, or imaginary deflation, and is determined to inject US$600 billion to prevent low inflation and achieve higher inflation, as per the Fed’s mandate to achieve full-employment.
What a crock. Bernanke is inflating away government debts and obligations, period. He also admitted to Marketwatch in a recent interview that his gift of trillions in gambling chips to his Wall Street masters is intended to prop up stock prices. He is sticking to that line since mortgages and interest rates are rising and real unemployment appears to be worsening, as good jobs are vanishing and are being replaced by low-wage service & temp positions.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bernanke-qe2-has-helded-improve-the-stock-market-2011-01-13
Helicopter Ben touts QE II’s “success” in pushing up stock prices - as if that is the Fed’s mandate. The comments of enraged readers are priceless. People are finally emerging from their slumber.
You’re wrong Sammy. Good jobs are just vanishing. Period.
Silly furriners…..thinking that the FED is worried about Main Street.
They obviously haven’t been paying attention.
X,
While perusing yesterdays “brahma” exchange I read a response of yours to a statement of mine that I would like to clarify.
The topic was the alleged rape and murder of an Afghani teenager. I had some skepticism about the story that’s why I said “If the story is true..”. My position on the US military is this. Good men & women being fed into the military industrial complex. We have no business being spread out over the entire globe “spreading democracy”. It’s complete BS.
The exchange with Brahma was a little glimpse into how the rest of the world views us. Believe me when I say we are almost always looked upon as arrogant buffoons. And after thinking about the people we elect, it’s not hard to understand why. I had to laugh at something Brahma said about American’s whining from their mom’s basement while waiting for their welfare check. Ouch.
My response to Brahma is if you don’t like it here then go home.
I love my country but not my government.
Inflation does not cause US jobs, although offshoring does destroy them.
It’s beginning to feel like the late 1970s again. Unfortunately, I gave away all my leisure suits.
Indians feel pinch of spiraling food costs
January 14, 2011|From Harmeet Shah Singh, CNN
India’s government announced anti-inflation measures Friday, but none that analysts expect will bring down soaring food costs that are reducing many to a hand-to-mouth existence.
…
The better question did you give disco away too?
Any relation to leisure suit Larry?
It IS the 70s all over again.
Stagflation. Bad music. Bad Fashion. Bad economy. Bad entertainment.
Only it’s this different this time in one very significant way: we haven’t put a man on the moon in 40 years and aren’t going to anytime soon.
Yes…we peaked.
Filed under: “Latino’s,… the GOP’s new black”
California GOP’s immigration problem
By MARTIN WISCKOL
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
…Del Beccaro acknowledged the impact of Latinos in the state’s political landscape. They accounted for 22 percent of ballots cast in November, according to Los Angeles Times exit polling. While GOP gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman won among non-Latino white voters, she lost badly among Latinos, getting somewhere between 15 percent and 22 percent of their vote, according to exit polls.
In addition to helping carry Jerry Brown to the governorship, Latinos contributed to Democrats sweeping every statewide seat and not losing a single Legislative seat in an election where Republicans racked up big gains in most other states.
Part of the problem is that Latino voters don’t see themselves reflected in the state GOP: There is no longer a single Republican Latino in the state Legislature and not one GOP Latino in the state’s congressional delegation. Democrats have 23 Latinos in the Legislature and six in the state’s congressional delegation.
Political analysts and Latino leaders agree that the future of the Republican Party in the state depends on transforming those goose eggs.
“Otherwise, they’re going to become an ever-shrinking minority party,”
Now, let’s add a catalyst to the mix:
People keep moving out of O.C.
December 27th, 2010, by Jan Norman, small-business columnist
Bill Watkins, director of the Center for Economic Research and Forecasting at California Lutheran University, has a more complete analysis of current Californians moving elsewhere at newgeography.com. Among his negative points:
* The projected $28 billion state budget deficit with shortfalls in excess of $20 billion a year anticipated by the California Legislative Analyst’s Office
* Unemployment that is 30% higher than the national average (12.4% in November)
* California’s credit rating is among the lowest in the U.S.
* California’s loss of 1.3 million manufacturing jobs
* California’s 41st ranking in creating scientific, technical, engineering and math jobs
“In just a couple of decades, California has gone from being America’s economic start, a destination for ambitious people from around the world and abundant with opportunity, to home of some of America’s most depressed communities,” Watkins wrote.
Immigration is to Latinos as Affirmative action is to Blacks.
Oppose them and the ethnocentric populace will never vote you. Then again what’s so great about voting GOP and the war machines? I only wish that these 2 tribes would rise above the skin color and give Dems kick in the nu*s once in a while.
Here in New Mexico, a Republican Latina was elected that opposed illegal immigration.
Therefore, Republicans do not have to favor illegal immigration to win greater support despite the Chamber of Commerce and its supporters trying to convince people that they do.
That’s because “New Mexicans” do not consider themselves “Mexican”.
Here in Idaho, my new congressman is Raul Labrador (R-ID), a foe of illegal immigration. He’s a legal immigrant from Puerto Rico so I guess that makes him a Latino.
One of the earliest memories I have is of this man coming to our house in Old Greenwich in the middle of the night to attend to my grandmother who was hospitalized that night. He was our family doctor and made house calls for many in an emergency situation. I graduated from high school with his son. They don`t make em like him anymore.
FREDERICK E. SIEFERT, M.D. died of lung disease at Greenwich Hospital on January l2 at the age of 80, surrounded by his family. Fred was born in Palisades Park, New Jersey on August 2l, 1930. After graduating from high school he joined the U.S. Marine Corps serving on active duty for two years. He earned a BS degree from Columbia University in l956 and graduated from New York Medical College in 1960. He completed his residency at Greenwich Hospital and joined the Greenwich Hospital medical staff in 1962. He is survived by his wife Lora, with whom he shared a long and loving relationship for 54 years. He is also survived by three married children: Fred enjoyed a distinguished 48 year career practicing internal medicine since 1962 in Old Greenwich and was seeing patients until just days before his hospitalization. His highest priority was to treat his patients with compassion and dignity and for his effort he was routinely given the greatest of all gifts by his patients - their warm expressions of appreciation. Fred adored German Shepherd dogs for their companionship, loyalty, temperament and service work; and he leaves behind his two faithful and heartbroken canine companions Zach and Alec. He enjoyed gardening, fishing and bridge. Above all he will be remembered and cherished by his family as an extraordinarily loving father, grandfather and husband. Burial will be private. The Siefert family extends its heartfelt appreciation to all of the staff at Greenwich Hospital for their compassionate and valiant effort to save their colleague.
He was 32 with a real job and little or NO debt, that is the difference..
Take that noose off, and doctors wont have to always be maximizing income to pay the debts.
Connecticut is the new Alabama?
——————————–
Amid foreclosures, mobile homes a place to turn for region’s homebuyers
The Day.com (CT) | January 16, 2011 | By Lee Howard
A high foreclosure rate has translated into more sales of mobile homes in eastern Connecticut over the past year, local real estate experts agree.
While the sales of single-family homes and condominiums fell during 2010, the number of mobile homes that passed hands in New London and Windham counties increased by 2.8 percent. And sales volume for the year was up 13 percent, reflecting higher prices paid for mobile homes.
One possible scenario, three experts said, is that people moving out of houses because of foreclosures are turning around and buying mobile homes.
“They’re more affordable,” said John Bolduc, chief executive officer of the Eastern Connecticut Association of Realtors.
Saw an news report that a Swiss Banker will hand over 2 CD’s with a ton of tax cheats here and in Europe to Wikileaks.
Apparently there are 40 politicians listed and Hedge Fund Managers.
Now you can see why the gov wants to shut down Wikileaks.
If Wikileaks would just stick to reporting diet tips, Hollywood infidelity and angry rhetoric from the different political parties they’d be fine.
Still waiting for the bank info Wiki leaks promised. ????
Maybe the list of tax cheats IS the bank information. Maybe a bank parked their ZIRP stimulus funds in a Swiss account and are pocketing the tax-free interest.
I think Wikileaks is awesome.
“Apparently there are 40 politicians listed and Hedge Fund Managers.”
Does that pretty much explain the rape allegations against Assange?
prolly
Julian Assuage’s legal troubles really started when he mentioned that he had files that could take down Bank of America.
You happened to notice that too. You can expose/embarrass the government but not the Bank that owns it.
They don’t call themselves Bank of America for nothing.
Perhaps it is time for our government to start more honestly referring to themselves as America of Bank.
But then his co-workers said JA’s ego got too big and they were spinning off from Wiki-Leaks to form their own similar whistle blower info clearing house. How convenient for the whistle blowers I thought to now have options. I wonder how many more spin offs and copy cats will come out of the woodwork all just in support of the final cause.
How is JA different from Woodward and Bernstein publishing Deep Throat’s info or Tom Clancy’s supposedly classified info he pubished in The Hunt for Red October? Could it possibly be that they fear the info might collapse the Ponzi?
Debt really does never sleep, does it?
I find it most interesting how the Fed freely loaned trillions of dollars to banks at zero percent interest, yet the states have to pay “market rates” on monies borrowed to keep the unemployed from starving to death. What is wrong with this picture?
U.S. bills states $1.3 billion in interest on jobless-pay loans
Some may turn to tax hikes while scrambling to get out from under debt
By MICHAEL COOPER and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
The New York Times
updated 1/15/2011 12:15:45 AM ET
As if states did not have enough on their plates getting their shaky finances in order, a new bill is coming due — from the federal government, which will charge them $1.3 billion in interest this fall on the billions they have borrowed from Washington to pay unemployment benefits during the downturn.
The interest cost, which has been looming in plain sight without attracting much attention, represents only a sliver of the huge deficits most states will have to grapple with this year. But it comes as states are already cutting services, laying off employees and raising taxes. And it heralds a larger reckoning that many states will have to face before long: what to do about the $41 billion they have borrowed from the federal government to help them pay benefits to millions of unemployed people, a debt that federal officials say could rise to $80 billion.
The states, when they borrowed the money, hoped that the economy would have turned around by the time the first interest payments came due, or that future Congresses might loosen the terms. But the economy did not turn around in time and the new Congress, dominated by Republicans determined to shrink the size of government, shows little appetite for deepening the federal deficit by bailing out the states.
The problem is not only the staggering number of people who have lost their jobs, but the fact that many states entered the downturn with too little money salted away in the trust funds they use to pay unemployment benefits, which they are supposed to build up in good times by taxing employers.
…
“The problem is not only the staggering number of people who have lost their jobs, but the fact that many states entered the downturn with too little money salted away in the trust funds they use to pay unemployment benifits, which they are supposed to build up in good times by taxing employers.”
Yeah? Well they didn’t. Nor did the states fully fund their pensions as they were suppposed to do.
So … now what?
Now the states have to pay interest to Uncle Sam AND pay their pension costs. Good luck with that plan, as so far as I am aware, you can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip.
But…but…but… there’s NO money!
Not true. So long as the Fed possesses sole ownership rights to a functioning printing press technology, there is plenty of money.
True, but the States do not have this wonderful technology…
Good luck with that plan, as so far as I am aware, you can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip.
When Wall Street tells its Republicrat servants to squeeze blood out of the turnips in flyover-land, trust me, a way will be found. Gotta keep up that TBTF bankster shareholder value & bonuses.
Flyover land includes plenty of farmland; with agricultural commodity prices headed skyward, there has never been a better time to squeeze blood out of flyover country.
For instance, they get to enjoy the privilege of involuntarily helping to guarantee wealthy coastal community mortgage loans at the conforming loan limit of $729,750.
“…many states entered the downturn with too little money salted away in the trust funds they use to pay unemployment benifits, which they are supposed to build up in good times by taxing employers.”
Where have I heard this before? Wait a minute… it will come to me…
Oh yeah. Pensions.
A comment from the above article:
“Letter From the Boss
As the CFO of this business that employees 140 people, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barrack Obama will be our next President, and that our taxes and government fees will increase in a BIG way.
To compensate for these increases, I figure that the Clients will have to see an increase in our fees to them of about 8% but since we cannot increase our fees right now due to the dismal state of our economy, we will have to lay off six of our employees instead. This has really been eating at me
for a while, as we believe we are family here and I didn’t know how to choose who will have to go.
So, this is what I did. I strolled thru our parking lot and found 8 Obama bumper stickers on our employees’ cars and have decided these folks will be the first to be laid off. I can’t think of a more fair way to approach this problem. These folks wanted change; I gave it to them.
If you have a better idea, let me know.
Sincerely,
The Boss”
Oh, that’s ridiculous. I have an idea. Maybe the CFO should volunteer to take a 50% paycut, since that would probably still land him in the top 10% of wage earners in this country. Or I guess he could just try to figure out how to keep getting all the work done short 6 ppl. Unless of course he just isn’t getting any business in because of the lack of employed US citizens who might have otherwise been clients, in which case his class of executives should take responsibility for that.
Part of the problem is that if government’s sock away too much in rainy day funds, people complain that taxes are too high.
It is similar to the spend it or lose it budget dilemma faced by managers in large corporations. If you don’t spend all of your budget, it is cut the next year.
It is also similar to the prudent company with plenty of cash reserves that becomes the takeover target for the rape and pillage Wall Street tycoon.
So government plans for the relatively small 10-year flood, but not for the outlier 500-year flood that we are in now.
I think I found a record Days on Market in Long Beach CA
1140 Pacific Ave
List date: 7/20/2007 $ 264,000
current short sale price $95,000
DOM 1291
Sunny and 80 in Long Beach
DOM 1291
WOW.
Admit it, Jeff — SoCal may not be able to brag so much as FL about our real estate price declines, but we clearly have you guys beat in the DOM category…
ECB lending to (insolvent) Irish banks is soaring, while capital flight from Irish banks is accelerating. Will this be the next shoe to drop on financial markets?
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1230/central-business.html
New figures from the Central Bank today show that Irish banks’ borrowings from the European Central Bank rose significantly last month, increasing by €11.7 billion. This brings the total borrowed to €97.3 billion.
The ECB lent all the banks in Ireland, including foreign lenders, €138.2 billion in November.
The Central Bank also said today that deposits from the Irish resident private sector were 6.7% lower on a year-to-year basis in November.
There was a negative monthly flow of private sector deposits during November worth a total of €5.2 billion. This brought the three-month average net outflow to €2.1 billion. This compares with an average net monthly outflow of €677m in the three months to the end of October.
AIB said last month that it had lost €13 billion in deposits since the end of June. Bank of Ireland shed €10 billion of deposits in the third quarter while Irish Life & Permanent said it had suffered a €600m outflow in the same period.
Today’s Central Bank figures also showed that lending to households and businesses fell again in November.
Loans to households last month fell at an annual rate of 4.8% after a fall of 4.9% in October. Lending for mortgages fell by 1.7% on a yearly basis.
There has never been a better time to buy!
Jan. 13, 2011
Housing Market Plunge Passes Depression’s
Zillow.com: 26% Drop in Prices Worse than the 25.9% during Depression; Expert Explains Meaning for Buyers and Sellers Alike
* 1M Foreclosures in 2010: Outlook Gets Bleaker
(CBS) NEW YORK — Home prices fell for the 53rd straight month in November, taking the decline past that of the Great Depression for the first time in the prolonged housing slump, according to Zillow.com.
…
November home prices fall 5%, expected to fall more
By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY
Updated 2d 4h ago
A reduced-price home has a foreclosure notice taped to the front door in the Spring Valley area in Las Vegas on Oct. 15, 2010.
By Mark Ralston, AFP/Getty Images
U.S. home prices fell 5.1% in November from a year earlier and are expected to go lower as the housing market struggles to find its recovery, according to a report Tuesday.
Real estate analytics firm CoreLogic said that single-family home prices declined for the fourth month in a row and at a faster pace. They dropped 3.4% in October year-over-year.
November declines occurred in 44 states, up from 18 in June when federal tax credits for home buyers were still pumping up sales. Sales and prices fell after the credits expired.
…
Go figure…
Photos | The best and worst places to invest in 2011
No. 1: Merced, Calif., which was hit hard by the crash, is now the best place to invest this year, according to Zillow.
Here, First Lady Michelle Obama delivers the commencement speech at the University of California, Merced on May 16, 2009. It was the first graduating class since the university opened in 2005.
Price are low in Merced, CA because the unofficial unemployment rate is roughly 40% there. In addition to the housing bust and construction lay-offs, the region is suffering from a lack of Ag water due to an ESA issue, the Delta Smelt.
“In Delta Smelt ESA Case, Judge Finds FWS’s Claims Arbitrary, Capricious. Unlawful”
Then there will be plenty of cheap student housing available. But I suppose to attract the students you might need to install a kegerator.
“…unofficial unemployment rate is roughly 40% there.”
A point when there is virtually no end-user demand sounds like the perfect time for vulture banksters with QE-funded zero percent loans to swoop in and snap up Merced housing assets at fire sale prices.
Hey, Spokane! I know that place and have lots of friends who live there.
Nice enough town, but it still thinks it’s a town, not a city, in spite of contrary evidence. There are things I like a lot about it but there’s a lot that drives me crazy, including the fact that it is, in the words of my college days, “resting on the laurels of Expo ‘74.”
Yeah, there was a World’s Fair there. Hard to credit, innit?
No love for Spokane from the west half of the state, no surprise there. Though I’m guessing that their rubric is the velocity of likely change; they put Stockton as a good place to invest, possibly because they think it’s bottomed out. Heh.
I wouldn’t be completely surprised if the University of California ends up shuttering the Merced campus if the state continues cutting its budget. What will happen to that “investment” then?
Establishing a new, from scratch, campus at Merced of all places was an act of extreme hubris.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Last updated January 12, 2011 10:31 a.m. PT
Zillow: Seattle’s one of the worst markets to invest in
By AUBREY COHEN
Seattle is the fourth-worst U.S. market to invest in this year, Seattle-based real estate website Zillow.com reported Tuesday.
Blame the fact that the area did pretty well during the housing boom and hasn’t fallen as far as many other previous hot spots since the crash.
Zillow looked at how out of whack home prices are with their historic relationship to incomes and rents, the state of foreclosures and which direction prices have been heading recently.
The site found some good places to invest, including many hard-hit California markets where prices may have over-corrected in the downturn.
“Affordability is at a historic high, and there are lots of opportunities out there for average homebuyers and investors alike,” Zillow PR Manager Katie Curnutte wrote on the company’s blog.
“To be clear, we’re not talking about people looking for a quick flip, but sophisticated investors who are interested in making a long-term investment in properties that will generate rental income. These types of investors usually expect modest value appreciation, so are focused more on regular positive cash flow.”
…
At the rate he is going, Humphries is going to have a hard time making it as a REIC porcine beautician.
Home price drops exceed Great Depression: Zillow
By Al Yoon
NEW YORK | Tue Jan 11, 2011 8:40am EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Home prices fell for the 53rd consecutive month in November, taking the decline past that of the Great Depression for the first time in the prolonged housing slump, according to Zillow.
Home prices have fallen 26 percent since their peak in 2006, exceeding the 25.9 percent drop registered in the five years between 1928 and 1933, the housing data company said in a report on Monday. Prices fell 0.8 percent over the month.
It is a dubious milestone for the U.S. housing market which has failed to gain much traction despite a host of government programs to reduce delinquencies and encourage demand with temporary tax credits and lower interest rates. Many economists expect further price drops, even if there are some anecdotal signs of growing demand, such as in pending home sales data.
“For the next six to nine months, the larger factors affecting the housing market that will produce more home price declines will be the excess inventory of homes, high negative equity and foreclosure rates, and weakened demand due to elevated employment,” Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist, said in a blog post.
…
Not Depression Recession©®™
Anyone in the market for a $1.85m condo?
$1,850,000
16924 Via De Santa Fe Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067
Beds: 2
Baths: 2.5
Sq. Ft.: 2,440
$/Sq. Ft.: $758
Lot Size: -
Property Type: Residential, Attached, Patio/Garden
Style: Ranch
Stories: 2
View: Greenbelt
Year Built: 1977
Community: Covenant
County: San Diego
MLS#: 080056131
Source: SANDICOR
Status: ActiveThis listing is for sale and the sellers are accepting offers.
On Redfin: 888 days
“Venetian Grandeur” A superior condominium upgraded throughout with a new kitchen inspired by “old world charm”, new bathrooms, and flooring. Check out the pictures as they speak for the outstanding beauty of this home. Both patios have new brick floors overlooking a greenbelt for complete peace and quiet. So many extras and one just has to move in.
“Anyone in the market for a $1.85m condo?”
Can’t say I am.
It’s not as though you really have to pay $1.85m to get into a half-decent condo in San Diego. For instance, a quick search on Redfin shows there are currently 179 condos and townhouses on the market in La Jolla (92037), offered at a median list price of $724,000 — and that is for a place a short walk away from the ocean! Good luck at finding a buyer for a land-locked McLuxury condo at over twice the price.
P.S. I love how all the active Redfin listings include this boilerplate matter-of-fact statement:
“This listing is for sale and the sellers are accepting offers.”
As though some rival bidder is going to snap it up if you don’t hurry up and get your offer in today…
$724,000
525 Marine St #12 La Jolla, CA 92037
Beds: 3
Baths: 2
Sq. Ft.: 1,336
$/Sq. Ft.: $542
Lot Size: -
Property Type: Residential, Attached
Stories: 2
Year Built: 2000
Community: beach
County: San Diego
MLS#: 100064154
Source: SANDICOR
Status: Active
This listing is for sale and the sellers are accepting offers.
On Redfin: 76 days
PRICE REDUCED-PRISTINE CONDITION, LIKE NEW, Ocean and Sunset Views from this upscale La Jolla Village 3 bedroom condo. Walk to restaurants and shops. Only two blocks to the pounding surf at Marine Street Beach. This Upper Level unit enjoys SUPERIOR VIEWS OF OCEAN AND SUNSETS. YOU WILL FIND ALL THE LUXURY UPGRADES HERE - TRAVERTINE FLOORS, STAINLESS STEEL KITCHEN APPLIANCES, GRANITE COUNTER TOPS, RECESSED LIGHTING, CEILING FANS IN MOST ROOMS. ASSIGNED PARKING SPACE. A MUST SEE TO APPRECIATE PROPERTY.
To show you what a state of turmoil the San Diego market is in, check out the summary stats on price per square foot for La Jolla condos & town homes:
List price per sq ft summary stats
Mean $608.59
Median $483.74
Standard Deviation $348.52
Min $259.55
Max $2,302.63
Amazing how price per square foot can vary by a factor of 10X in the same zip code, no?
Wow, that is crazy.
That’s the range of list prices. Just out of curiosity, what’s the range based on assessed values?
Redfin does not provide assessed value information, but they do show Original List Price and Last Sale Price, which might be interesting to compare to the list price data posted above.
Last Sale Price per Square Foot
Mean $474.05
Median $439.81
Standard Deviation $262.95
Minimum $118.34
Maximum $1,533.70
Original List Price per Square Foot
Mean $659.92
Median $487.03
Standard Deviation $565.65
Minimum $273.93
Maximum $6,373.63
The current median list price has dropped from the original level of $487 down to a revised level of $483 — BIG WHOOP!
“Maximum $6,373.63″
Maybe a fat finger data entry error in play here?
Martin County local governments add to list of those making $100,000 or more
January 16th, 2011 by TCPalm.com
A total of 172 local government employees in Martin County earned $100,000 or more in 2009-2010, a 5 percent increase from the prior year, despite a reduction in the ranks of the fire rescue workers whose pay reached six figures.
The city of Stuart had 33 workers whose pay topped six figures in 2009-2010, an 83 percent increase from 2008-2009 when there were 18, city records show.
There were also 33 Martin County Sheriff’s Office employees who earned $100,000 or more in 2009-2010, sheriff’s records show. That represents a 32 percent increase from 2008-2009 when there were 25.
Martin County Board of County Commissioners: 850 full-time employees, 93 earned $100,000 or more
$165,723: Cliff Appe, fire rescue bureau chief (former)
$158,122: Michael Moon, airport director (former)
$147,416: Theresa Padgett, fire rescue battalion chief (former)
$141,719: Taryn Kryzda, county administrator
$141,286: Scott Legg, fire rescue battalion chief
$141,028: James Worley, fire rescue battalion chief
$139,225: John Polley, utilities director
$138,792: Christopher Stabile, fire rescue lieutenant
$138,086: Joseph Beert, fire rescue lieutenant
$137,767: Wade Mallard, fire rescue battalion chief
$137,764: Kevin Kryzda, chief information officer
$136,839: Marc Ducote, fire rescue lieutenant
$136,601: Lowell Nance, fire rescue battalion chief
$135,649: Joseph Ferrara, fire rescue chief
$134,990: Horace Wiggins, fire rescue battalion chief
$134,576: Don Donaldson, county engineer
$133,509: Randy Spiegelhalter, fire rescue lieutenant
$131,652: Matthew Himes, fire rescue lieutenant
$131,531: Nicki van Vonno, growth management director
$128,641: David Zarker, fire rescue lieutenant
$127,282: Stephen Fry, county attorney
$126,982: Casey Hilton, fire rescue battalion chief
$126,643: Daniel Wouters, fire rescue division chief
$126,006: John Stipo, fire rescue lieutenant
$125,753: John Davidson, fire rescue lieutenant
$125,228: Larry Massing, building official
$125,054: Michael Lee, fire rescue lieutenant
$125,002: Karl Oneyear, fire rescue lieutenant
$124,460: Brian McGlothlin, fire rescue battalion chief
$124,404: Keith Colodny, fire rescue firefighter paramedic
$124,054: Ronald Walling, fire rescue lieutenant
$123,737: Robert Osterhoudt Jr., fire rescue lieutenant
$123,512: Jon Belding, fire rescue division chief
$123,430: Christopher Zambello, fire rescue lieutenant
$123,126: James Sorrells, fire rescue lieutenant
$122,915: William Topping, fire rescue lieutenant
$122,873: Matthew Fenex, fire rescue lieutenant
$122,840: Michael Stagmiller, fire rescue lieutenant
$122,761: David Graham, director of administration
$121,958: Gary Roderick, environmental quality manager
$121,499: Johnny Recca, fire rescue lieutenant
$121,451: Richard Wilde, fire rescue firefighter paramedic
$120,903: Krista Storey, senior assistant county attorney
$120,347: Dwight Caserta, fire rescue lieutenant
$120,085: Mark Bentz, fire rescue lieutenant
$119,795: John Richardson, fire rescue lieutenant
$119,584: Bryan Richardson, fire rescue lieutenant
$119,365: Charles Gordils, fire rescue lieutenant
$118,193: James Loffredo, fire rescue lieutenant
$117,517: Karen Warren, fire rescue lieutenant
$117,495: Roy Aufort, fire rescue lieutenant
$116,117: Thomas Shimanek, fire rescue lieutenant
$115,940: Rodney Robertson, fire rescue battalion chief
$115,778: Robert Udzinski, fire rescue firefighter paramedic
$115,704: Jonathon Cantiello, fire rescue lieutenant
$115,478: Kenneth Zottola, fire rescue lieutenant
$115,374: Wilfredo Rodriguez, fire rescue lieutenant
$115,116: Chrystal Haubert, fire rescue lieutenant
$114,939: David Acton, senior assistant county attorney
$114,926: Patrick Gallagher, fire rescue lieutenant
$113,894: Richard Demilt, fire rescue lieutenant
$113,469: Steven Czerwinski, fire rescue lieutenant
$113,206: Michael Harris, fire rescue lieutenant
$113,115: Chad Cianciulli, fire rescue lieutenant
$112,675: Kathleen Voneslinger, fire rescue firefighter paramedic
$112,335: Scott Button, fire rescue lieutenant
$112,087: James Ritchey, fire rescue lieutenant (former)
$110,853: Harry Ramsey, fire rescue lieutenant
$110,066: Brian Seymour, fire rescue lieutenant
$109,827: Stanley Hilton, fire rescue lieutenant (former)
$109,657: Richard Bellomy, fire rescue lieutenant
$108,749: Christian Montoya, fire rescue lieutenant
$108,067: Keith Holman, emergency management agency director
$107,877: Harry Bish, fire rescue lieutenant
$107,496: James Sherman, assistant county administrator (former)
$107,105: Martin Shell, fire rescue firefighter paramedic
$106,643: Bryce Currie, fire rescue firefighter paramedic
$106,346: Terry Rauth, deputy county engineer
$105,984: Robert McLendon, fire rescue firefighter paramedic
$105,809: Scott Schlawiedt, fire rescue lieutenant
$104,441: Richard Hunter, fire rescue firefighter paramedic
$104,342: Todd Tucker, fire rescue lieutenant
$103,627: Ted Robbins, technical services administrator
$103,493: Mark Marzucca, fire rescue lieutenant
$103,405: Paul Davidson, fire mechanic
$103,079: Harold Markey, general services director
$102,448: Denise Eldredge, project and services manager
$102,422: Jerry Rothgeb, fire rescue firefighter emergency medical technician
$102,242: John Blackard, fire rescue firefighter paramedic
$101,836: Paul Jones, fire rescue lieutenant
$101,088: William Greene, fire rescue firefighter paramedic
$100,581: Scott Webber, project engineer
$100,507: Sarah Woods, senior assistant county attorney
Martin County Sheriff’s Office: 509 full-time employees, 33 earned $100,000 or more
$136,440: Beverly Brame, captain (former)
$132,953: Thomas Bruton, sergeant (former)
$129,636: Robert Crowder, sheriff *
$127,819: David Sansone, deputy
$125,613: Marvin Mann, undersheriff
$122,412: Betty Duncan, deputy
$119,957: Janice Heitzman, controller
$118,387: Steven Chase, major
$117,653: John Pietruszewski, major
$116,057: Robert Seaman, major
$115,937: Robert Pryor, major
$113,886: Angelo Minella, deputy
$113,500: Christopher Conrad, detective
$108,570: James Warren, sergeant
$108,302: Monica Jensen, detective (former)
$107,903: David Findora, deputy
$106,045: Lloyd Jones, captain
$105,420: Casey Szparga, captain
$105,275: Mike McKinley, captain
$105,015: Dale Howard, sergeant
$104,915: John Wardle, captain
$104,770: Jeffrey Townsend, captain
$104,385: Edwin Kirkpatrick, captain
$104,205: Mark Neild, sergeant
$103,563: Bernard Hodapp, sergeant
$102,658: Patricia Oslager, captain
$102,524: Kevin Gannon, sergeant
$102,034: Robert Wilke, sergeant
$101,663: Rodney Vizzo, sergeant
$100,824: Anthony Stracuzzi, deputy
$100,753: Bruce Pinkman, sergeant
$100,735: William Dowdy, lieutenant
$100,500: Karl Nelson, sergeant
I have news for you: It would be nigh impossible to get by in Marin County on less than $100K a year.
All pretty interesting, but here is the question. How much of this is base salary, and how much is overtime?
There are cases where governments try and reduce head count in an attempt to control costs, and in the process end up increasing the amount of overtime for existing employees.
“Sheriff Robert Crowder and Stuart City Manager Dan Hudson said they have not received any complaints from the public about the rise in the number of workers whose pay topped $100,000, which both blamed on the need to pay more overtime as a result of staff reductions.”
Just seems odd to me that they need all the overtime for lieutenants, chiefs, sergeants and majors. If it were silly me and I was trying to save money with staff reductions, I would have laid off the high earners and paid the lower end people the overtime. Unless there is some kind of union rule against laying off people with more seniority.
“A total of 172 local government employees in Martin County earned $100,000 or more in 2009-2010, a 5 percent increase from the prior year, despite a reduction in the ranks of the fire rescue workers whose pay reached six figures.”
Maybe Marin County. But in Martin County Fl. ( just north of Palm Beach County) you can get by on $35k and live comfortably on $65k.
“Martin County”
Never mind…
marTin county
Time to clean me spectacles…
6 Responses to “Martin County local governments add to list of those making $100,000 or more”
1.stu bum Says:
January 16th, 2011 at 6:06 pm
want to save tax payer money…fire them all! I GUARANTEE they can be replaced cheaper!!!! That’s right….I GUARANTEE IT!
2.jay Says:
January 16th, 2011 at 6:30 pm
Ever since 9/11 anything that fire department personnel want they get….this is not exclusive to south Florida…..
3.Vanessa Says:
January 16th, 2011 at 6:58 pm
These guys are making too much for this area and current economic conditions.
4.Martin Says:
January 16th, 2011 at 6:59 pm
A paralegal making that kind of money! Come on man!
5.Vince Says:
January 16th, 2011 at 7:13 pm
fire rescue salaries and OT are a joke, and are bankrupting us.
6.Eric Says:
January 16th, 2011 at 8:15 pm
If you think the salaries are sweet, take a look at the pensions! Some of these folks could actually earn more in retirement than they did while working.
We can thank our politicians for this unsustainable fiscal insanity!
Another
“forget about the bankers who caused this disaster and let’s blame people who have real and productive jobs in your neighborhood instead”
distraction story.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/wall_street_will_be_back_for_more_20100110/
Corporations, which control the levers of power in government and finance, promote and empower the psychologically maimed. Those who lack the capacity for empathy and who embrace the goals of the corporation—personal power and wealth—as the highest good succeed. Those who possess moral autonomy and individuality do not. And these corporate heads, isolated from the mass of Americans by insular corporate structures and vast personal fortunes, are no more attuned to the misery, rage and pain they cause than were the courtiers and perfumed fops who populated Versailles on the eve of the French Revolution. They play their games of high finance as if the rest of us do not exist. And it is a game that will kill us.
These companies exist in a pathological world where identity and personal worth are determined solely by the perverted code of the corporation. The corporation decides who has value and who does not, who advances and who is left behind. It rewards the most compliant, craven and manipulative, and discards the losers who can’t play the game, those who do not accumulate wealth or status fast enough, or who fail to fully subsume their individuality into the corporate collective. It dominates the internal and external lives of its employees, leaving them without time for family or solitude—without time for self-reflection—and drives them into a state of perpetual nervous exhaustion. It breaks them down, especially in their early years in the firm, a period in which they are humiliated and pressured to work such long hours that many will sleep under their desks. This hazing process, one that is common at corporate newspapers where I worked, including The New York Times, eliminates from the system most of those with backbone, fortitude and dignity.
No one thinks in groups. And this is the point. The employees who advance are vacant and supine. They are skilled drones, often possessed of a peculiar kind of analytical intelligence and drive, but morally, emotionally and creatively crippled. Their intellect is narrow and inhibited. They rely on the corporation, as they once relied on their high-priced elite universities and their SAT scores, for validation. They demand that they not be treated as individuals but as members of the great collective of Goldman Sachs or AIG or Citibank. They talk together. They exchange information. They make deals. They compromise. They debate. But they do not think. They do not create. All capacity for intuition, for unstructured thought, for questions of meaning deemed impractical or frivolous by the firm, the qualities that always precede discovery and creation, are banished, as William H. Whyte observed in his book “The Organization Man.” The iron goals of greater and greater profit, order and corporate conformity dominate their squalid belief systems. And by the time these corporate automatons are managing partners or government bureaucrats they cannot distinguish between right and wrong. They are deaf, dumb and blind to the common good.
These deeply stunted and maladjusted individuals, from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to Robert Rubin to Lawrence Summers to the heads of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America, hold the fate of the nation in their hands. They have access to trillions of taxpayer dollars and are looting the U.S. Treasury to sustain reckless speculation. The financial and corporate system alone validates them. It defines them. It must be served. This is why e-mails from the New York Fed to AIG, telling the bailed-out insurer not to make public the overpaying of Wall Street firms with taxpayer money, were sent when Geithner was in charge of the government agency. These criminals sold the public investments they knew to be trash. They used campaign contributions and lobbyists to turn elected officials into stooges and gut oversight and regulation. They took over retirement savings and pensions and wiped them out. And then they seized some $13 trillion in taxpayer money so they could lend it to us with interest. It is circular theft. This is why we will endure another catastrophic financial collapse. This is why firms like Goldman Sachs are more dangerous to the nation than al-Qaida.
“These deeply stunted and maladjusted individuals, from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to Robert Rubin to Lawrence Summers to the heads of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America, hold the fate of the nation in their hands.”
We are frackin’ doomed.
Yep.
I once saw an article that compared working at a bad job to being in an abusive relationship. The working conditions described–designed to get the worker to a state where they supported the company above all else–were much like those in this article. With the one exception of the sums of money involved.
Remember, those who have been abused are most at risk of continuing the abuse if they don’t get an external reality check.
“I once saw an article that compared working at a bad job to being in an abusive relationship.”
It is. And by extension, a recession leads to many jobs going bad.
“I vas just followinc orders.”
Helicopter Ben’s hyperinflation is starting to kick in. I wonder how many more governments are going to be toppled before World leaders start demanding that Obama cut off Benny’s printing privileges.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/1105128/1/.html
KHARTOUM: Widespread economic and political discontent has northern Sudanese wondering if Khartoum is heading towards a popular uprising like in Tunisia.
On Sunday, opposition parties congratulated Tunisians and called for an “end to the totalitarian regime” in Khartoum, demanding the resignation of Sudan’s Finance Minister Ali Mahmud who they blame for rising prices.
Political uncertainty, skyrocketting food prices and weak state finances have decimated the Sudanese pound. Already saddled with heavy debt, the country has also exhausted its foreign currency reserves and slid into inflation.
The government ratified tough austerity measures on January 5 in response to escalating import costs. As a result, the price of sugar jumped 15 per cent in a week, and the price of bread rose by 20 per cent and gas 33 per cent in December.
“Everything, everything went up. I am now forced to buy less,” Fatma Mohammed, young mother of four children, told AFP. “The price of a kilo of meat rose from 20 to 24 Sudanese pounds (about nine dollars).”
“People are unhappy,” said Mohammed Kheir, a butcher in a Khartoum souk. “They say the price is too high and ask why.”
- AFP/fa
“Helicopter Ben’s hyperinflation is starting to kick in.”
I wonder how long it will take for the MSM to catch on, given that the ‘volatile food and energy sectors’ are excluded from what the Fed counts as headline inflation?
The MSM has made scant mention of rising unrest due to soaring food prices, and when they do, they never mention the role of the Fed’s quantitative easing in feeding inflation. But the main thing is, I know what Snooki is up to.
Why are people interested in this individual?
Snooki on New Year’s Eve
* January 1st, 2011 8:50 am ET
Well um she’s on TEE VEE and has MONEY…and most guidos would like to take her home but cant since they live with mom….
This can’t be right. I’ve had far too many people from this board tell me that inflation was a fantasy and I was imagining things.
More collateral damage from Fed and central bank money printing and rampant, POMO-funded commodity speculation.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/1105111/1/.html
AMMAN: More than 3,000 Jordanian trade unionists, Islamists and leftists held a sit-in on Sunday outside parliament to protest the government’s economic policies.
“We have been suffering in Jordan the same way Tunisians have been suffering,” Muslim Brotherhood leader Hammam Said told the protesters, referring to the popular revolt in Tunisia that ousted its strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Protesters waving Jordanian and Islamist flags held banners with messages venting their anger at the government of Prime Minister Samir Rifai, and demanding an end to “corruption” and “soaring prices.”
“For how long should we pay the price of corruption and theft,” read one of the banners.
The demonstrators chanted “enough of lies, we lost our future,” and called on Rifai to “listen to the voice of the people.”
“Jordan’s blood has been sucked,” they chanted.
“Poverty, starvation and unemployment, we’ve had enough,” and “Jordanians are on fire… the soaring prices are killing us,” were among the other slogans they chanted.
Thousands of Jordanians took to the streets of the kingdom on Friday to protest soaring prices and unemployment, despite a 169-million-dollar plan to improve their living condition.
But critics say the measures are not enough, complaining of rising unemployment and poverty as inflation last month hit 6.1 per cent.
Unemployment is around 14 per cent in the country of six million people, 70 per cent of them under 30, but other estimates put the figure at 30 per cent, while the minimum wage is 211 dollars a month.
Poverty levels are running at 25 per cent in the desert kingdom, whose capital Amman is the most expensive city in the Arab world, according to several independent studies.
This is the risk that those who think a vibrant middle class is unnecessary have not accounted for. The Prince of Wales was recently made aware that he lives in the world. And he is probably one of the more mindful of the elites.
Somali pirates, with few resources, have made shipping more risky in the Indian Ocean. When the Middle East goes up in flames and global oil supplies are threatened, they will see repercussions in China, Germany, and India, in addition to the body blow to the US economy. Some of the new meritocracy will find themselves bankrupt.
Mmmm Good?
Campbells Soup must no be so great for the local workers:
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — Yet another crisis is upon this burdened city, among the most impoverished and crime-ridden in the country.
Deep layoffs of city workers go into effect on Tuesday — cutting up to 383 jobs, or one-fourth of the city’s employees.
The exact number depends on whether public workers’ unions make last-minute concessions. In any case, the cuts are likely to be deep — and could be a blow to the quality of life in a city where more than half the 80,000 residents, mostly black and Hispanic, live in poverty.
Worst case, the layoffs could slash half the police force and one-third of the fire department for this city just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. Practically every other job in the city is likely to be affected.
“The fear quotient has been raised,” said the Rev. Heyward Wiggins, pastor of Camden Bible Tabernacle in a rough neighborhood on the city’s north side, who constantly hears from his congregants about the layoffs.
His Fellowship Choir of adults from their 20s to their 50s, used to practice on Thursday or Friday evenings. Now, Wiggins said, he’s moving rehearsals to Sunday after worship services because members are afraid of being out after dark when the police force is cut.
Camden, rampant with open drug-dealing, prostitution and related crimes, was the nation’s second-most-dangerous city based on 2009 data, according to CQ Press, which compiles such rankings. Camden ranked first the previous two years. The FBI said that in 2009, the city had 2,380 violent crimes per 100,000 residents — more than five times the national average.
Police Chief Scott Thomson has not made details of the cuts public, but has said the department will be reconfigured so that patrols won’t be reduced. Other police agencies, such as the county sheriff’s office, have agreed to help in the city.
A police union, meanwhile, took out a full page advertisement last week in the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill, warning that Camden would become a “living hell” if layoffs were not averted. Unions have been meeting with city officials, but no job-saving deals have been announced so far.
Excellent post Sammy . Scary post really if you really want to think about
how evil these drones are ,and nuts truly nuts ,dangerous from the standpoint of what their objective is without morally .
Really if you have ever seen the CEO of Goldman’s on TV ,he truly acted liked a little king on a throne who was ready to tell the Congress people in their little Kangaroo Courts to go to hell ,how dare they subject him to
these hearings . Doing Gods work …….yeah ,right . The degree of damage these people did is beyond measure ,yet they got bailed out in more ways than one .
One of the problems Hank Paulson had with dealing with the Politicians was he had a attitude of just do it ,don’t ask questions ,which is how those people are .
The highest crime rate in NJ and going up…is this an OHbahmaH green shoot?
Camden, NJ braces for deep police, fire cuts
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20110116/D9KPM2KO0.html
Camden is in serious trouble. I think it was last summer when the stories were circulating about cutting all libraries.
uh no biggie they won’t learn to speak English…so it really is a waste of money
http://www.comfortinvest.com/californiacity_layout.html
Not making any more dry dusty desert land with probably no water.
This story tells you everything.
NEW YORK – Orange juice isn’t the only thing at your supermarket that’s been squeezed.
Rising food prices mean grocery store chains must absorb extra costs on items like meat, seafood, and produce, or they try to pass them along to customers. But many of those consumers are unemployed or have less money to spend, even on essentials. For now, the big chains are mostly choosing to absorb. As a result, profits are falling, and so are their stocks, making them one of the few dim lights in the market in 2011.
On Tuesday, Supervalu was the first of the grocers to report quarterly results, and the numbers for its fiscal third quarter were ominous: A loss of $202 million, or 95 cents a share, compared with a profit of $109 million, or 51 cents, in the same period a year earlier. The company, which operates Albertsons, Jewel-Osco, Acme and other chains, also cut its forecast for the year.
“This is going to be a challenging year going forward to manage inflation,” Supervalu CEO Craig Herkert told analysts Tuesday. “It’s just a fact and we believe these inflationary measures are going to impact consumers
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This story really shows you that most of the US is living on the edge. Food prices tick up so they stop buying brand name and go generic. They stop buying steak and go hamburger. They stop buying hamburger and go rice and beans. People are buying low profit margin goods.
IF it’s happening in your food stores you can be damn sure it’s happening in other areas of retail, I don’t care how they fudge the numbers. If people are cutting back on the quality of their food they are cutting back on everything else that is not an absolute need. Cars, electronics, furniture, clothing, services, oh yes and on housing. What will this do to unemployment?? What will it do to housing??
“What will this do to unemployment?”
In a consumer based-economy?
Are you asking how consumers who are desperately short of money will effect employment in a consumer-based economy?
Is this a trick question?
Not trick, just asking a question that we all know the answer to.
Food is a basic need. When poor people become richer one of the first things that improves is their diet. It’s logical that one of the last things they give up is their diet. Thus stories like this really make me question numbers that are fed to us from other areas of the economy.
“Rising food prices mean grocery store chains must absorb extra costs on items like meat, seafood, and produce, or they try to pass them along to customers. For now, the big chains are mostly choosing to absorb.”
The other way they “absorb” costs on meat and produce is cutting quality, letting “fresh” items be sold after they should have been removed. I’ve had continual problems with the corporate San Diego grocery stores (Albertsons/Vons(Safeway)/Ralphs (Kroger) since the long strike that ended in early 2004, moldy fruits and vegetables and rotten meat.
I’m still getting rotten meat from these grocery stores a few times a year, regularly enough that I always keep the receipt with any meat I purchase. I’ve also shifted more to buying meat from stores that seem to have better quality control.
This was supposed to go here. Oops:
This can’t be right. I’ve had far too many people from this board tell me that inflation was a fantasy and I was imagining things.
Economic Preview
Jan. 16, 2011, 11:05 a.m. EST
Housing: U.S. economy’s Achilles’ heel
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Housing typically leads economic recoveries, but this time around it’s slowing the economic recovery.
Eric Rosengren, the president of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank, called the housing market “moribund” in a speech Friday.
“I expect housing will not provide as much support to this recovery has it has in previous ones,” Rosengren said.
CIBC World Markets chief economist Avery Shenfeld was even more pessimistic, saying he believes the weak housing sector will be a drag on consumer spending in the second half of the year.
Shenfeld said he is forecasting economic growth to average 2.6% in 2011, as consumers will be forced to be cautious as home prices are declining.
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Does anyone get the feeling that the release of these so called polls is really done to drive opinion rather than to inform us on what people feel?
As lawmakers shaken by the shooting of a colleague return to the health care debate, an Associated Press-GfK poll finds raw feelings over President Barack Obama’s overhaul have subsided.
Ahead of a vote on repeal in the GOP-led House this week, strong opposition to the law stands at 30 percent, close to the lowest level registered in AP-GfK surveys dating to September 2009.
The nation is divided over the law, but the strength and intensity of the opposition appear diminished. The law expands coverage to more than 30 million uninsured, and would require, for the first time, that most people in the United States carry health insurance.
The poll finds that 40 percent of those surveyed said they support the law, while 41 percent oppose it. Just after the November congressional elections, opposition stood at 47 percent and support was 38 percent.
As for repeal, only about one in four say they want to do away with the law completely. Among Republicans support for repeal has dropped sharply, from 61 percent after the elections to 49 percent now.
Also, 43 percent say they want the law changed so it does more to re-engineer the health care system. Fewer than one in five say it should be left as it is.
Now that the GOP is in power they will dismantle only the things in teh bill that the insurance companies hate, but because the opinion poll has improved they just won’t be able to overturn the mandate that everyone buy coverage. All you have to do is look at the media, all the stories and rhetoric against the bill are gone. It will faid into the background where the demons can have their way with it with no light of day.
Using opinion polls to actually influence opinion was proven back in early 20th century.
A ray of sunshine occasionally pierces the omnipresent gloom.
* U.S. NEWS
* JANUARY 17, 2011
Doctors Upgrade Giffords to Serious Condition
By MICHAEL ROTHFELD
Doctors Sunday upgraded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’s medical condition to serious from critical, saying she is doing well without a ventilator and continues to make progress since a gunman shot her eight days ago, the hospital that is treating her said in a written statement.
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Investors have been fleeing municipal bonds
Deteriorating finances of states and cities raise fears of defaults
January 16, 2011|By Eileen Ambrose, The Baltimore Sun
Municipal bonds traditionally have been a refuge for the risk-averse, as many are backed by the full faith and credit of state and local governments, but those same investors lately have been bailing out at a record rate.
A few factors can be blamed for this sudden retreat, but the one making all the headlines is the fear that cash-strapped states and municipalities issuing the bonds will renege on promises to investors.
Those simmering concerns were stoked last month when respected banking analyst Meredith Whitney warned on “60 Minutes” that 50 to 100 or so cities and counties will default on “hundreds of billions of dollars” of municipal bonds.
Many bond experts scoff at Whitney’s prediction, saying it’s wildly off the mark. The worst year for municipal bonds in the past three decades was 2008, when 162 issuers defaulted on bonds totaling $8.1 billion — not hundreds of billions — according to the Distressed Debt Securities Newsletter, which tracks defaults.
Still, bond experts acknowledge that states and municipalities face severe financial strains. These experts don’t suggest avoiding municipal bonds, but they say investors can no longer buy any old bond and assume their investment is safe.
“They have to be extremely picky,” says Marilyn Cohen, author of “Surviving the Bond Bear Market,” which is scheduled for release in March.
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Pre-Refunded Munis Are A Bargain
Jan. 11 2011 - 1:22 pm
Posted by Marilyn Cohen
During the summer of 2010 we had a Teflon bond market: Every bit of bad news, terrible bond events and currency misfortunes rolled right off the bond market. It was like your fried eggs sliding effortlessly out of the Teflon pan.
Yields on all bonds were low; some, outrageously so. Then, with QE2 and the November elections over, investors felt their Teflon protection melting away as bond yields began their relentless march upward. The bond market was no longer forgiving. From November 3rd to December 31st the ten year Treasury 2.626% due August 15, 2020 lost 6.25%. Corporate prices lost luster and municipal bonds were getting slammed.
Billions of dollars flooded out of municipal bonds and especially muni bond funds–funds were once the retail investors’ vehicle of choice. There’s been no where to run or to where to hide unless you had the secret sauce recipe: Tax free municipal bonds, escrowed and guaranteed with US Treasurys.
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